


Keybladed Avengers: Age of Ultron

by The_Unlimited



Series: Light and Avengers [7]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Add in of new characters, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Damn There Were A Lot Of Relationship Tags, F/M, I never learned what the hell I'm doing, OC Vanitas, Pre-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:00:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 70,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27000079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Unlimited/pseuds/The_Unlimited
Summary: The Avengers gather together again to take back Loki's scepter from a hidden HYDRA base in the country of Sokovia. There, they find the staff, along with a couple of surprises in the forms of enhanced individuals, and a surprise reunion with a friend of Sora and Vanitas. Of course, things don't stay topsy turvy when Tony gets an idea to construct a robotic AI specifically for protecting the world, which ends up going horribly wrong. To make matters worse, the One Winged Angel gets involved and decides to help the AI with his plans to "correct" the planet Earth. Can the heroes get together to stop Ultron and Sephiroth from fulfilling their plans, or are they just the terrors Ultron says they are?
Relationships: Avengers Team & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton & Cloud (Kingdom Hearts), Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Donald Duck & Goofy & Player Character & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Donald Duck & Goofy (Kingdom Hearts) & Avengers Team, Jane Foster/Thor (Referenced), Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Mickey Mouse & Riku (Kingdom Hearts), Mickey Mouse & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Natasha Romanoff and Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Nick Fury & Maria Hill, Nick Fury & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (Referenced), Pietro Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff, Sephiroth (Kingdom Hearts) & Ultron (Marvel), Sora & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Vanitas & Tony Stark & Bruce Banner
Series: Light and Avengers [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1479848
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20





	1. The Twins

**Author's Note:**

> When I was trying to do the distribute the character tags, I kind of forgot about Fury and Hill until after I did everyone else. My bad.
> 
> Also, the idea for adding Cloud into this story came from a story similar to this on fanfiction.net. NaruSaku did his own crossover stories of this genre, with all of them following mostly Sora and Kairi after III and Re:Mind. I highly recommend checking out their stories. You know, when they writes them all again. When there was just one chapter left of the Endgame story, they deleted all of them and started from scratch at the beginning with the first Avengers movie again. Anyway, in the story for Age of Ultron, Cloud and Sephiroth got involved, along with Elsa becoming a surprise extra group member. I liked that idea, and plan on doing my own variation of it here.
> 
> ...Minus Elsa
> 
> Also forgot the Bruce/Natasha tag until near the end of writing this first chapter. I'll admit, I was a fan of it in the movie.
> 
> You know what's weird? This is actually the first movie in this Universe where I add in the characters right from the start. This many stories into the series. What are the odds?

In the Eastern European country of Sokovia, a HYDRA lab was hidden in the base of leader Baron Von Strucker. This base had taken artifacts leftover from the Battle of Nw York three years prior, including parts of Chitari, Leviathans, and even Loki's scepter. That last one they used for their illegal human experimentation.

An explosion soon struck the base, garnering the attentions of the only two survivors of said experiments, twin siblings, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff.

 _"Report to your stations immediately_ ," Strucker instructed over the PA system. " _This is not a drill. We are under attack._ "

Soldiers all around the base went to work grabbing assault rifles in preparation as Strucker reiterated, " _We are under attack!_ "

Outside the base in the snow capped forests, a 4x4 truck was being driven by Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff. In the back of the truck, Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, was in a new suit with a low coat and was firing arrows out of his bow at the HYDRA agents they came across before they could blast them, with Donald and Goofy standing next to him with their weapons raised in preparation. Donald blasted spells like Blizzard and Thunder while Goofy threw his shield at the HYDRA goons.

"You're about as good with that shield as Cap is with his," Clint complimented Goofy.

"Thanks!" Goofy said as he caught his shield once more.

The HYDRA agents were decked out in equipment that they had combined from the Chitari weaponry they had stolen, allowing them laser blasters and high tech jetpacks. One flew up to Natasha's side of the truck, and she kicked the man away as he tried grabbing at her.

Within seconds, Tony Stark flew above them in his new Iron Man suit, with Vanitas following behind in his parts of armor and his black robes. As Tony flew ahead of the group in the 4x4, another one drove up next to them with a high tech blaster atop it. But then Thor appeared out of nowhere and used his hammer, Mjölnir, and knocked them off of the car. He then flew up to the top of a watchtower in front of them and landed atop with Vanitas. The two of them then proceeded to knock the guards with assault rifles off of the tower like they were nothing.

"We're such badasses," Vanitas commented under his helmet.

"Such," Thor agreed, kicking a flying HYDRA agent aside.

Vanitas grabbed one out of the air and punched him in the face, making him fall to the ground below them. Thor grabbed another flying goon as it tried attacking them from behind, and slammed it onto the ground they were standing on, making them fall to the snowy ground.

They landed on their feet, and Thor used a piece of that ground to knock aside soldiers that came around him. Vanitas punched, kicked, and fired a Beretta handgun at kneecaps to fight off the soldiers around him.

Within moments, a motorcycle passed by them driven by Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, with Sora riding on the back with his Keyblade in hand. Sora knocked aside some soldiers they passed with his weapon, then used various spells to knock them away. Steve grabbed one soldier by his ankle and dragged him through the dirt, throwing him through the air within seconds. He then grabbed his shield and threw it.

Sora exclaimed, "Wha-hoo!" as Steve rode the bike across the snowy plains, as the shield bounced across trees, knocked aside another HYDRA soldier, and went right back into Steve's hand.

Steve then drove the bike through more of the forest, dodging more laser blasts, including that of a large tank. Vanitas, Thor, and Tony soon appeared, taking out the tank with a ram from Thor's hammer, and blasts from Tony's propeller and a fireball from Vanitas. Hulk then appeared and caught the still intact remains of the tank and threw it to the side.

As Natasha drove the 4x4 with the rest of the group nearby, Hulk pushed through multiple HYDRA agents. Nearby, Steve rode his bike with Sora atop, while Thor, Tony, and Vanitas flew nearby. Natasha drove the 4x4 up to a road block, and they all leaped forwards together, Steve on his bike with Sora raising his Keyblade in preparation, Thor with Mjölnir raised in preparation, Hulk and Vanitas with their right fists pulled back, Natasha leaping forwards with a kick, Clint with an arrow knocked, Goofy with his shield raised, and Donald with fire around his staff in preparation.

They all quickly knocked down the soldiers on the other side of the small road block. Steve rode the bike further across the landscape as Sora knocked aside HYDRA agents aside with his Keyblade. Thor, Vanitas, and Tony flew ahead, with Thor crashing his hammer into a small raised wall of defense. Tony and Vanitas took the initiative and flew right over the forest and to the castle. They dodged laser blasts fired from the castle and flew right towards the top, but then got bounced off by a blue lined force field.

"Shit!" Tony exclaimed over the intercom.

"Language!" Steve admonished.

"Tell me he didn't just say that again," Vanitas commented.

"Jarvis, what's the view from upstairs?" Steve requested.

" _The central building is protected by some kind of energy shield_ ," Jarvis informed them, using the advanced monitors on the Stark Industries satellite in orbit to scan the castle. " _Strucker's technology is well beyond any other HYDRA base we've taken_."

As Jarvis explained that, another group of HYDRA soldiers started moving through the forest. Thor jumped down from nowhere again and started fighting them, quickly knocking them aside.

"Loki's scepter must be here," he assessed, throwing Mjölnir and kicking down another soldier. "Strucker couldn't mount this defense without it."

"No kidding," Sora commented as Thor summoned Mjolnir to his hand, but then stepped aside to make it knock aside another soldier. "This level of high tech equipment is too similar to the Chitari tech from the Battle of New York. They've got everything else from there, so why not the scepter?"

"At long last," Thor breathed out, catching Mjölnir while Sora blasted a nearby tank with Thundaga.

The others went to work fighting off the groups of soldiers as they regrouped.

Natasha ran towards a small group just as one of their 4x4s started to drive away. She tossed a grenade into the back, which caused a large explosion which stopped it. She then leaped down into a trench that some of the soldiers were hiding down in for protection. She used her aerobic skills to take two soldiers to the ground with her, knocking them unconscious.

"'At long last' is lasting a little long, boys," Natasha quipped into the intercom.

She then fired a handgun at the soldier operating a large laser gun next to her, taking him down.

Nearby, Clint and Donald were hiding behind trees while facing a tank. Clint had just fired an arrow from his bow and Donald shot out Blizzard when a blast from the tank broke one of the trees. Donald hid behind one of the trees while Clint pulled out an arrow.

"Yeah," Clint agreed as he fired the arrow at the tank, blowing it up. "I think we lost the element of surprise."

"Go figure," Donald commented, throwing up an Ether.

Back at the castle, while Tony and Vanitas couldn't directly attack it, they resorted to attacking the soldiers below them that were running up stairs. Tony fired blasts from his hand thrusters while Vanitas fired his Beretta, aiming for limbs.

"Wait a second," Tony said into the intercom. "No one else is gonna deal with the fact that Cap just said 'Language'?"

"I know," Steve sighed out as he kept riding the bike.

"They're never gonna let you forget this one, either," Sora told him.

A HYDRA 4x4 with soldiers atop appeared in the road in front of them, so Sora jumped off the motorcycle as he knew what Steve was gonna do. What Steve did was use the handlebars to launch himself off, land on his feet, and toss the bike forwards, where it crashed into the 4x4 and made its broken form fall to the ground and drop the HYDRA soldiers.

"It just slipped out," Steve sighed out.

"Go figure," Sora commented.

* * *

Back in the castle, Strucker went through the hallways until he reached the control room, where people were working all around as they tried to figure out what they were gonna do.

"Who gave the order to attack?" Strucker demanded.

"Herr Strucker, it's the Avengers," a Sokovian scientist informed him, gesturing to the screen next to them.

"They landed in the far woods," a head soldier told Strucker. "The perimeter guard panicked.

"They have to be after the scepter," Strucker whispered to another scientist, Dr List. He turned towards the man who was at the screen. "Can we hold them?"

"They're the Avengers," the man pointed out. "All eight of them, including the two Keyblade wielders."

"Deploy the rest of the tanks," Strucker instructed. "Concentrate fire on the weak ones. A hit may make them close ranks."

He walked up to Dr List.

"Everything we've accomplished," Strucker muttered while Wanda and Pietro watched from the other side of the room. "But we're on the verge of our greatest breakthrough."

"Then let's show them what we've accomplished," Dr List suggested. "Send out the twins."

Although the siblings perked up at that suggestion, Strucker remarked, "It's too soon."

"They signed up for this," Dr List pointed out.

"My men can hold them," Strucker insisted.

With that, even more soldiers started piling out of the castle and into the woods. The large laser blasters kept firing, but some of the blasts veered very off course.

" _Sir, the city is taking fire_ ," Jarvis informed Tony as he and Vanitas dodged more laser blasts.

"Well, we know Strucker's not gonna worry about civilian casualties," Tony muttered.

"Unfortunately," Vanitas commented, briefly seeing a laser landing in the middle of a street and blowing up.

"Send in the Iron Legion," Tony instructed Jarvis.

So he did. The cybernetic copies of Iron Man dubbed the Iron Legion flew into the city and tried to inform them that they needed to leave. Unfortunately, people responded by throwing things at the robots and chanting, "Avengers, go home!"

"Ungrateful pricks," Vanitas commented as he saw that.

He also saw pretty decent graffiti of an Iron Man suit with an assault rifle in each hand, two of them having a big dollar sign over the head.

"Something tells me people aren't a fan of us," Vanitas informed Tony. "You, especially."

Back in the castle, Strucker was riling up all of his men in the room with him.

"We will not yield!" he announced. "The Americans sent their circus freaks to test us. We will send them back in bags." He stood next to Dr. List and looked over all the soldiers in the room. "No surrender!"

"No surrender!" the soldiers repeated.

Strucker then leaned in close to Dr. List and muttered, "I am going to surrender. You delete everything. If we give the Avengers the weapons, they may not look to far into what we've been..." *** _1_ ***

Dr. List looked to the side during Strucker's explanation, and found himself surprised.

"The twins," he interrupted Strucker's explaination.

"They are not ready to take on..." Strucker started.

"No, no, I mean..." Dr. List interrupted again, gesturing to where Wanda and Pietro had been standing just moments before.

Strucker followed his gaze to see the siblings were gone.

"Twins..." he whispered.

* * *

Outside in the forest, Clint and Donald were making their way through some more trees, dodging laser blasts and gunfire along the way. They hid behind one, and Clint got an arrow ready to fire at a small bunker where a soldier was shooting a large machine gun. Clint knocked the arrow and fired, but then the arrow was caught by a blue blur that disappeared almost as soon as it appeared.

Within seconds, Clint realized something had gone wrong when the explosion never went off.

"What the hell?" Donald asked in confusion as they shared a look. *** _2_ ***

Clint knocked another arrow and prepared it to fire, but then both of them were knocked to the ground by the blur. They exclaimed in pain as they landed in the snow, then got up onto their knees, finding themselves face to face with a white haired young man dressed in warm clothes.

"You didn't see that coming?" Pietro taunted in a cocky voice before speeding away.

Clint nocked another arrow into his bow, but quickly realized it was pointless since the man was already gone.

"That guy's faster than my cousin's bike," Donald commented.

Unfortunately, they were so distracted that they didn't notice a large laser gun convert out of the top of the bunker and blast both of them, breaking Clint's bow and knocking them to the ground.

"Clint!" Natasha exclaimed, hearing their groans of pain and running towards their teammates.

Not that far away, Steve and Sora were standing and observing the forest around them, figuring out what their next move was gonna be. When suddenly that same blur appeared from behind and knocked them up into the air. They both flipped a bit before Steve landed on his feet, and Sora landed on his face.

"Ow," Sora said into the snow.

"We have an Enhanced in the field," Steve announced into the transmitter as he helped Sora up.

"Clint and Donald are hit!" Natasha announced.

She kneeled down next to the two to find Clint with a large gash in his side, groaning in pain, and Donald unconscious with most of the feathers around his torso burned off. The gun on top of the bunker was still going off, sending exploding laser blasts all over the place.

"Somebody wanna deal with that bunker?" Natasha asked.

Hulk and Goofy then leaped down out of nowhere, screaming out defiantly. Hulk roared as they charged at the bunker, Goofy raising his shield towards the HYDRA soldiers and Hulk charging right at the small structure. Hulk then smashed right through the entire thing, breaking it down into little pieces that all fell to the ground.

"Thank you," Natasha simply said before going to work to try to fix up Clint and Donald.

Elsewhere, Steve and Sora were fighting through more HYDRA soldiers, knocking them aside as they came near them.

"Stark, Jordan, we really need to get inside," Steve commented as he knocked aside to soldiers.

"We're closing in," Tony informed him.

They reached the small buildings below the castle and landed on the ground, with Tony sending out blasts from his hand thrusters to knock aside two soldiers.

"Jarvis, are we closing in?" Vanitas asked as he fired his handgun at the soldiers.

They went further across the castle grounds, fighting through all kinds of soldiers.

"Do you see a power source for that shield?" Tony asked as he burst through a gate and kept blasting aside soldiers with his thrusters.

"There's a particle wave below the north tower," Jarvis informed them.

"Great, I want to poke it with something," Tony joked as they flew through an alleyway between cliff and buildings.

"I'll get my sharp pointy stick," Vanitas added to the joke.

Tony then flew his armor through the top of a large military truck as the two flew up to the castle again. Tony blasted the shield with his thrusters while Vanitas fired a grenade launcher to keep the attention of the castle occupants on them. That way, they never noticed Tony firing a small missile that went into the bottom of the North Tower and send out an electrical surge. The large blue shield then appeared around the castle, slowly falling apart on itself.

"Drawbridge is down, people," Tony informed them.

"Get the battering ram ready to knock down the doors," Vanitas quipped.

Back in the woods, Steve used the magnets on his arm to get back up his shield while Sora wiped off some of his face. Their attentions were drawn to nearby as Thor landed on the ground smashing Mjölnir and sending out a shockwave that knocked aside all soldiers near him. The two ran up to their blonde friend as he stood up.

"The Enhanced?" Thor asked.

"He's a blur," Steve informed him.

"Literally, he's that fast," Sora added as they stopped next to Thor.

"Of all the new players we've faced, I've never seen this," Steve admitted. "In fact, I still haven't."

"Welcome to my world," Sora commented.

" _Clint and Donald are hit pretty bad, guys_ ," Natasha informed them over the transmitter. " _We're gonna need evac_."

Their attentions were drawn to a little bank that more soldiers and another large high tech tank were traveling up, coming right for them.

"I can get Barton and Sir Donald to the jet," Thor informed them. "The sooner we're gone, the better. You two, Stark and V secure the scepter."

"Copy that," Steve said.

"Not really looking forwards to seeing that thing again," Sora admitted.

"None of us are," Steve informed him. "But it's our job to obtain it."

They watched as the soldiers got closer and closer.

"Looks like they're lining up," Thor assessed. He got his hammer ready as Sora stepped back and covered his ears.

"Well, they're excited," Steve remarked, holding up his shield.

Thor hit the shield with his hammer, causing a flash of lightning and the gong sound to blare as a shockwave flew into the soldiers, knocking all of them and the tank through the air.

"Find the scepter," Thor instructed, getting Mjölnir ready.

"What?" Sora asked, a slight ringing in his ears.

Thor raised Mjölnir and started flying up.

" _And for gosh sakes, watch your language!_ " Tony jokingly admonished through the transmitter.

Steve looked down and sighed out.

"That's not going away anytime soon," he assessed.

" _You think?_ " Vanitas sarcastically commented with a laugh.

Back in the castle, Strucker left the main room and started down the stairs, just in time for Tony and Vanitas to crash through the window and hover in the air. With his bulletproof robes, Vanitas floated next to Tony as the soldiers fired their guns up at the duo.

"Guys, stop," Tony said in a reasonable voice as he locked onto his targets.

"We gotta talk this through," Vanitas added.

Tony then sent out many darts from his shoulder cannons while Vanitas fired a Beretta and a Glock into kneecaps, sending all the soldiers to the ground.

"It was a good talk," Tony quipped.

"No, it wasn't," a soldier denied.

"Maybe not from your perspective," Vanitas commented.

They moved down to the lab where they found Dr. List in the middle of deleting all their files. The Dr. looked up in surprise as Tony blasted him with one of his thrusters, knocking him to the ground.

With all the guards defeated, Tony had his armor open up, allowing him to walk out.

"Sentry mode," he instructed his suit. The armor reformed itself and held up its arm, making a small light glare out of the thruster.

Vanitas even made his helmet disappear.

"Man, I wonder how I ever got used to that thing," he commented, brushing a hand through his hair as he and Tony walked to the computer. "It's hot."

"You'd think you have a higher tolerance to heat what with your fire powers," Tony commented.

"You'd think," Vanitas agreed as they went to work with the computer.

"Okay, Jarvis, you know," Tony said, placing down a small device before typing on the keyboard. "I want it all."

"Make sure you copy Hill at HQ," Vanitas added. "Want to keep all the data these pricks got."

Tony kept up his work, stopping the computer from deleting the files and instead start downloading them.

Back in the forest, things had calmed down. Evidently, with the shield gone from the castle, the soldiers found themselves defeated. They held up their hands in surrender as cyborgs from the Iron Legion pointed their thrusters at them.

"We're locked down out here," Natasha announced over the transmitter.

"Then get to Banner," Steve told her as he and Sora entered the castle and he took of his mask. "It's time for a lullaby."

"I still can't believe that works," Sora commented.

In the computer room, Tony and Vanitas turned away from the computer and looked around the room.

"I know you're hiding more than files," Tony announced.

"That fucking thing's gotta be around here somewhere," Vanitas assessed.

"Hey, J, give me an IR scan of the room real quick," Tony requested.

A red light came out of the suit and started covering every inch of the walls.

" _The wall to the left_ ," Jarvis informed them, so they turned towards said wall. " _I'm reading steel reinforcement and an air current_."

They walked up to the large brick wall.

"Please be a secret door," Tony muttered as they walked up to the wall. "Please be a secret door. Please be a secret door."

He and Vanitas pushed into the wall, and a secret door slid back and revealed a room to them.

"Yay," Tony said in childlike excitement.

Vanitas smiled at his friend's enthusiasm before they walked through the doorway. They found themselves at the top of a large staircase that led far down, with very little lights overhead lighting the way. Vanitas slipped a fresh magazine into his Beretta and raised it in preparation as they walked down the stairs.

Back in the forest, Goofy watched with wide eyes as Hulk took pieces of a destroyed tank and threw them all over the place. He exclaimed in fear and held up his shield as Hulk turned his back to him and threw the latest piece. Natasha calmly walked up onto the bank next to him.

"Hey, big guy," she said in a soft voice, getting Hulk's attention. "Sun's getting real low."

Hulk growled at them, and Goofy backed up in fear while Natasha held up her gloveless left hand. After twitching his face a bit, Hulk walked up to her and raised his hand to hers. Natasha pressed her palm to the bottom of Hulk's massive hand before pressing it gently onto his wrist. The anger faded from Hulk's face as he looked at Natasha, who slid her hand across his palm and fingers.

With that, Hulk started stumbling away from them, exclaiming a lot. Natasha stood up and looked down with a smile, before she scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion.

"Why do I smell pee?" she asked.

"Let's get goin'!" Goofy quickly said, covering his front with his shield. "They're waitin' for us back at the jet!" *** _3_ ***

Hulk stumbled through the forest, falling to the ground as his skin changed back to a pale color and his body started to shrink. Within seconds, Hulk had changed back into Bruce Banner, who breathed in and out as he tried to catch a hold of himself.

Back in the castle, Strucker had just reached the top of a staircase when a soldier of his was knocked through an open door and landed on the ground in front of him, unconscious. He looked up in surprise to see Steve and Sora walk in and stare at him.

"Baron Strucker," Steve said. Strucker smiled as he and the two started to walk in an arc around the others.

"HYDRA's number one thug," Sora said.

"Technically, I'm a thug for SHIELD," Strucker countered as Steve stopped in front of the staircase.

"Well, then technically you're unemployed," Steve remarked. "Where's Loki's scepter?"

"You've got about five seconds before we stop asking nicely," Sora said, trying to sound intimidating. Whether or not it worked was up for determination.

"Don't worry, I know when I'm beat," Strucker told them. He looked over Steve's shoulder to see Wanda creeping out of a door next to the stairs, her eyes glowing red. "You'll mention how I cooperated, I hope."

"We'll put it right under 'illegal human experimentation'," Steve told him. Strucker said nothing. "How many are there?"

It was at that moment that Sora noticed Wanda successfully sneaking up next to him and Steve.

"Steve..." Sora started to say.

But then the brunette girl forced red energy out of her hands, forcing them down the stairs. The two recovered and ran back up just to see Wanda quickly back up through a pair of doors, and for them to close on their own in front of her.

"We have a second Enhanced," Steve announced over the transmitter. "Female. Do not engage."

They looked at Strucker next to them, anger on their faces.

"You'll have to be faster than..." Strucker started to say.

Steve was about to interrupt the man with a plan to stomp on his shield, knock it into Strucker's face, then catch it, but then something entirely different happened. A white and black light appeared over all of their heads with strong winds blowing all around them.

"Sora, what the hell is that?" Steve asked in shock, covering his face from the wind.

"I don't know!" Sora admitted. "Doesn't look like any Aero I've ever seen!"

The light then glared so bright that it blinded the three watching it for a bit. When it died down, they heard the sound of someone yelling out in confusion, and Strucker exclaimed as a body fell on him and tackled him to the ground, knocking his monocle off.

When they could see again, Sora and Steve were surprised to see Strucker whimpering on the ground with a wincing blonde man in black on top of him, facing away from them.

"Is that Roxas?" Steve asked, confused.

Sora frowned, because he recognized the outfit, the patterned blonde spiked hair, and the sword across the man's back. He kneeled down as the man rolled off of Strucker, and his eyes widened in surprised recognition.

"Cloud?" Sora asked.

Cloud Strife looked up at the sound of his name being said, and went wide eyed at the familiar brunette face.

"Sora?" he asked in equal surprised recognition.

" _Uh, guys, we got Strucker,_ " Steve announced over the transmitter with some confusion in his voice.

"Yeah, we got something bigger," Tony announced as he and Vanitas walked into another lab.

The lab was much larger than the other one, primarily because it was housing the lifeless body of a gigantic deactivated Leviathan.

" _You will not believe who just showed up,_ " Sora said over the intercom.

"Tell us later," Vanitas told his friend.

He and Tony were observing multiple tables of the lab with lots of equipment strewn over them, including one that looked like a silver Iron Man suit. However, their attentions were soon drawn away from the rest of the equipment as they noticed a familiar blue light. They looked around the machines and found the scepter raised up on a stand on another table.

"Thor, we got eyes on the prize," Tony informed the blonde on the Quinjet over the intercom.

"Bitching," Vanitas commented as the two men never noticed Wanda sneaking up behind them.

Rather than do what she did to Steve, she decided to mess with these two mentally. She raised her hands up to each of their heads, and released some energy, briefly making their eyes go red.

Even though he knew it was a vision, Vanitas was still just as surprised as Tony when the Leviathan came to life and flew forwards, crashing through the walls and flying into the vastness of space. They watched in shock as what looked like steps appeared, with all of their teammates on it. The two friends began to sweat with nervousness as they saw Hulk twitching, barely breathing as what looked like giant arrows were hanging out of his back. Natasha, Clint, Thor, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Terra, Ventus, Aqua, Axel, Xion, and Roxas's lifeless bodies were littered across the steps along with many people they didn't recognize.

At the bottom, the one closest to them was Steve, who's shield was broken into two right next to them. Tony and Vanitas kneeled down next to him and Tony placed a hand up to his neck to check for a pulse. But then they were both surprised as Steve quickly and roughly grabbed Tony's hand.

"You... could have... saved... us..." Steve weakly got out before his hand fell and blood pooled out of his nose.

" _Why didn't you do more?_ " Steve's voice echoed, psyching Tony and Vanitas out even more.

A low growling then garnered their attentions. They looked up with wide eyed and dropped jaws to see the blue portal from before open and observing Earth. Dozens of Leviathans started flying through the portal and towards Earth, with the mothership following close behind. The Leviathans growled out in victory...

Then Tony and Vanitas gasped as they looked up, coming out of their shared vision. Not to far, cleverly hidden, Wanda watched with equal surprise as their vision ended, and they looked up at the Leviathan in surprise.

"Stay dead, motherfucker," Vanitas told the Leviathan with a cracked voice, aiming his Beretta at the giant teeth.

As they turned towards the scepter, Pietro sped into the room and stood next to his sister. But then Wanda held out a hand to stop him from moving forwards. He breathed in and out with a frown as Tony and Vanitas moved towards the scepter.

"We're just going to let them take it?" Pietro muttered in annoyance as Wanda smiled widely.

Tony held out his hand, and the glove from his suit flew back on. They walked up to the scepter and grabbed it, stopping the blue electricity from flaring. They looked down at the scepter as the light continued to glow.

"Too bad we couldn't shove this up Loki's ass for all the trouble he caused us," Vanitas muttered.

But he still considered this a job well done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I remember that little bit of irony managed to get a little laugh out of me even when I was a stoic thirteen year old when this movie came out
> 
> *2 I remember, when I started the whole thing of adding characters into these things when I was a kid, I came up with a whole system of partners where it'd be my character and one of the canon characters working together. I kinda did that in previous stories, setting up Sora or Roxas with Steve, and I do it prominently by setting up Vanitas and Tony. But Donald won't be Clint's partner in this story. I think you'll figure out who it'll be pretty quickly
> 
> *3 That was his first time seeing how out of control Hulk can get in person, you know. Let's face it, that'd probably be the right reaction with how easily he and Donald get scared
> 
> I will admit, Elizabeth Olsen happens to be an actress that I think is really attractive, so I'm gonna pass some of that onto Vanitas, what with his fourth wall breaking powers


	2. Revels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team heads back to base where Steve and Sora learn about the Maximoffs, and Tony and Vanitas discover something about the scepter...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a little bit, I forgot that Dr. Cho had made a cameo in Vanitas Makes a New Friend, back in the Lazy Days chapter. Remembered and altered some things for it.
> 
> This one, it rolls off the tongue a bit easier than the Guardians stories. Probably 'cause it's back to the main group we've seen the most of, and the ones I was admittedly most enthusiastic to write about when I started this series

It took them very little time to get back to the Quinjet and start flying it out of Sokovia. Tony and Vanitas sat in the pilot seats while Natasha walked from them over to the stretcher, where Steve, Sora, and Goofy were fixing up Clint and Donald while also checking Cloud for any injuries. The blonde was a little dirty with some bruises, but it wasn't anything a Hi-Potion couldn't fix up.

Thor turned away from his friends and walked to the boxes where they were keeping the cased scepter in. He looked down at his brother's old weapon while Bruce ignored all of them and looked down with headphones on. He was listening to Opera music in an attempt to keep himself calm.

He looked up at Natasha sitting down in front of him and removed the headphones.

"Hey, the lullaby worked better than ever," Natasha remarked.

Bruce nodded his head and looked down.

"Just wasn't expecting a code green," he admitted.

"If you hadn't been there, there would have been double the casualties," Natasha pointed out. "My best friend and the mallard would have been treasured memories."

"You know, sometimes exactly what I want to hear isn't exactly what I want to hear," Bruce said, looking down then back up."

"How long before you trust me?" Natasha asked.

After a second, Bruce admitted, "It's not you I don't trust."

Natasha looked down and announced, "Thor, report on the Hulk."

Sora, Vanitas, and Steve had moved next to the blonde, who was looking at Natasha and Bruce.

"The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims," Thor proudly told them.

Bruce looked down and covered his face in shame while Natasha threw the blonde a wide eyed look of anger.

"Bad move," Sora muttered to Thor.

"Very bad move," Vanitas added with a nod of the head.

"But not the screams of the dead, of course," Thor corrected himself to try to help. "No, no, wounded screams. A great deal of complaining, and tales of sprained deltoids and gout."

During his little rant, everyone looked away from him. By the end, Steve, Sora, and Vanitas were smirking at him, partly cause they could see the embarrassment on his face as he looked back down at the scepter.

"And I thought Zack was the best at embarrassing people by saying the wrong words..." Cloud muttered to himself.

"Hey, Banner, Dr. Cho is on her way in from Seoul," Tony announced from the pilot seat. "Is it okay if she sets up in your lab?"

"Uh, yeah, she knows her way around," Bruce told him.

"Thanks," Tony said. He told Jarvis, "Tell her to prep everything. Barton needs the full treatment. And who knows what's up with Magician Mallard?"

" _Very good, sir_ ," Jarvis said.

"Jarvis, take the wheel," Tony instructed.

" _Yes, sir,_ " Jarvis said as Tony slid back in his mechanic chair and pressed a button. " _Approach vector is locked._ "

Tony walked over to the others as they viewed the scepter together. Curious, Cloud even walked over and joined them in looking down at it.

"You know, Dr. Cho was a little upset to learn that you found a solution to your problem on your own," Tony told Vanitas. "She was hoping she'd find something and that'd lead to some big publicity for her."

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint," Vanitas said with a chuckle as they all looked down at the scepter.

"Feels good, yeah?" Tony asked Steve and Thor. "I mean, you've been after this thing since SHIELD collapsed. Not that I haven't enjoyed our little raiding parties, but..."

"No, but this..." Thor said. "This brings it to a close."

"As soon as we find out what else this has been used for," Steve remarked. "I don't just mean weapons. Since when is Strucker capable of human enhancement?"

"Enhancement?" Cloud asked.

"Those guys used this thing to give people powers that they probably shouldn't have gotten," Sora told him. "We faced two of them. One guy who was really fast, and the other was a girl who used red energy to knock us down some stairs."

"I was right," Vanitas commented. "That would come back up."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"After Roxas and I helped you take out Project Insight, I briefly saw Strucker talking with another doctor," Vanitas admitted. "He had the scepter and was talking about that now that HYDRA and SHIELD were gone, this was a new age of miracles, gesturing to the two of them and saying nothing was more frightening than a miracle."

"And you waited this long to tell us because...?" Steve started.

"I was a little busy dealing with trying and failing to help Roxas," Vanitas admitted. "My mind was elsewhere, and you were already off looking for Bucky. We were both distracted by matters that were important to us."

"Okay, that's fair," Steve said with a nod of the head.

"Whatever the case, Banner and I will give this thing a once over before it goes back to Asgard," Tony announced, gesturing to the scepter. He looked at Thor. "Is that cool with you?"

Thor nodded.

"Just a few days till the farewell party," Tony added as Thor looked down at the scepter. "You're staying, right?"

"Yes, yes, of course," Thor assured them. "A victory should be honored with revels."

"Yeah, who doesn't love revels?" Tony asked. "Boys?"

"Oh, we're in," Vanitas confirmed.

"Anything to stick around for a little while longer," Sora agreed.

"And now I can get drunk," Vanitas said with a smile, thinking about the possibilities.

"Blondie?" Tony asked, looking over his shoulder at Cloud, only to see the man walking down to the other side of the jet.

"We got him," Vanitas assured as he and Sora started following Cloud.

"Captain?" Tony asked Steve.

"Hopefully this puts an end to the Chitari and HYDRA," Steve said, looking down at the scepter. He looked at Tony and smirked, "So, yes, revels."

Tony nodded his head before looking at the wall in front of them.

On the other side of the jet, Sora and Vanitas had caught up with Cloud.

"What happened to you?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, the last time we saw you, you kinda disappeared with the long sworded angel," Vanitas commented.

"Sephiroth and I continued our fight," Cloud explained. "Along the way, he admitted to me that he was the one behind the disappearance of my friend, Zack Fair, back when I was a teenager. Zack was supposed to come back home, but he never did. I went searching for him, and gave into darkness in an attempt to find him. That darkness birthed Sephiroth, who I guess caught up with him."

"Zack..." Vanitas muttered, briefly seeing a young boy with spiked black hair. "I think I saw him once..."

"I tracked his last known location to Olympus Coliseum," Cloud confirmed. "I stayed there for a few months, and that's when our paths crossed. I never found him, but I found Sephiroth. We fought, and that transported me back to Hollow Bastion, where I met back up with Leon and the others. And, well, you know the story from there."

"So, you've been battling Sephiroth pretty much the entire time since we last saw you?" Sora assessed.

"Pretty much," Cloud admitted.

"Man, you've gotta be exhausted," Vanitas commented, reaching into his bag for the cooler.

He soon took out a water bottle and passed it to Cloud, who took it gratefully and took a large sip.

"You have no idea," Cloud admitted when he came up for air. "Sephiroth is much stronger than you could ever guess."

"I fought him," Sora said. "I've got an idea."

"Sora, you know he probably would have gone easy on you, right?" Vanitas pointed out.

Sora looked out and thought about it for a second.

"Oh..." he said in realization.

"The most he did was strong sword slashes, dark balls, meteors, giant pillars of fire, and an attempted attack to insta kill Sora," Vanitas said.

"Oh, you haven't seen the worst of what he can do," Cloud informed him. "Heartless Angel is easy to stop. But some of his other attacks... He kicked me through solid concrete, murdered a thirty foot serpent with a spike through the face, and took dragon breath like it was nothing. I've stabbed him lots of times with different kinds of swords, but heals them almost instantly. And his illusion powers are enough to drive you mad." *** _1_ ***

"Whoa..." Sora and Vanitas muttered with wide eyed.

"I only hope he isn't in this universe," Cloud admitted. "The battle in my universe damn near leveled an entire town. I have to hope that he won't find his way here."

"If he does, then we'll help you fight him," Sora assured the blonde.

"Guys..." Cloud started to say.

"Hey, that's the thing about having friends who can fight," Vanitas remarked. "We're not just gonna let you take care of this prick on your own."

"Exactly," Sora said with a fist pumped in agreement. "We've got your back."

Cloud looked at the two of them and sighed out. He closed his eyes and gave a single nod.

"We'll take it," Vanitas said. "First, we're doing that celebration party. And you're gonna be there."

"What?" Cloud asked, looking at them in confusion.

"You did kinda help us catch Strucker," Sora reminded him.

"Not intentionally," Cloud pointed out.

"Dude, you know how much stuff we do is intentional?" Vanitas asked. "You helped, so you're gonna be there. End of discussion."

Vanitas turned away and walked towards the others with a smile. Cloud sighed out and turned towards Sora.

"There's no way I can get out of this, is there?" he asked.

"Nope," Sora confirmed. "But, I can tell you about our friends here so you're not in the dark."

Pretty soon, they had arrived back at Avengers Tower in New York, landing on the helipad as Maria Hill, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Dr. Helen Cho walked out the doors to greet them. Clint and Donald were wheeled out of the ship by some assistants, and Helen led them into the building, followed by Goofy, Natasha, and Mickey. Maria walked into the ship with Kairi and Riku, passing Thor as he carried the case with the scepter out of the ship.

Sora and Kairi greeted each other with a strong hug. Riku smirked and rolled his eyes at the exchange. These two were acting like they hadn't just seen each other this morning.

"We got a surprise guest," Vanitas announced, walking over with Cloud. "This is Cloud Strife. A friend of ours from Radiant Garden."

"Nice to meet you," Riku said, holding out a hand.

"Ditto," Cloud commented, walking past him out of the ship.

"Forgive him," Vanitas said as Cloud left earshot. "He's kinda going through the phase you were in at Castle Oblivion. Did a big mistake with darkness and is trying to combat it while keeping his friends safe."

"Ah..." Riku said, wincing as he stared back at Cloud in understanding. "I hope he'll win."

"He will," Sora assured. "Because we'll be there to help him."

"Lab's all set up, boss," Maria had told Tony during the friends' conversation.

"Uh, actually, he's the boss," Tony corrected her, gesturing to Steve, who had looked up at that. "I just pay for everything, and design everything, and make everyone look cooler."

"What's the word on Strucker?" Steve asked as he, Sora, Kairi, and Vanitas walked up to the woman.

"NATO's got him," Maria confirmed.

"And the two Enhanced?" Steve asked as they started walking out of the ship.

"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff," Maria told him, passing the tablet she was holding. "Twins."

"Oh, my god, that's Elizabeth Olsen!" Vanitas exclaimed in excitement at the pictures.

"What?" Steve asked, him and the others scrunching their eyebrows in confusion as they stopped at the ship ramp.

"Well, I figured this out a while ago..." Vanitas started, never dropping his smile. "But everyone on this Earth apparently has a doppelgänger on my Earth that's a famous actor or actress. Your old drill sergeant from World War II looks like an actor named Tommy Lee Jones. Fury looks like an actor named Sam Jackson. Hell, this guy Peter we know looks like an actor named Chris Pratt. That girl, she looks like an actress named Elizabeth Olsen. I had, like, the biggest crush on her when I was a kid!"

"You do understand that that's not actually her, right?" Kairi pointed out.

"And since she's an Enhanced, that means she'll probably be a threat," Steve added.

Vanitas very visibly deflated at that.

"Oh, man," he whined. "That means I'm probably gonna have to punch my celebrity crush in the face!"

Vanitas walked off, still looking pretty upset, while the others just raised an eyebrow at him.

"I will never get used to how he is," Kairi admitted.

"Welcome to the club," Sora commented.

Maria brushed that off and tried to retain a sense of professionalism as they continued their walk to the doors. She tapped the screen, showing the two when they were younger and both brunettes at some rally.

"Anyway, they were orphaned at 10 when shell collapsed their apartment building," Maria explained as the screen showed said building that was broken in half. Vertically. "Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but, it's on the way to everywhere special."

"Man, that's rough," Sora commented, and Kairi nodded her head in agreement.

"Their abilities?" Steve asked as they walked into the building, passing Vanitas who was still looking sad.

"He's got increased metabolism and improved homeostasis," Maria explained. "Her thing is neuroelectric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation. Sort of like Jordan."

They reached an elevator, and Sora and Steve just shot the woman confused looks. Even Kairi wasn't making sense of her words, as evidenced by the frown on her face.

"Talk to us like we're fourth graders," Sora requested. *** _2_ ***

"She's fast and she's weird," Maria said.

"Well, they're gonna show up again," Steve said as the elevator dinged.

"Yeah, that's how these things tend to go," Sora commented.

"Lucky us," Kairi commented with sarcasm.

"File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments," Maria told them as Steve, Sora, and Kairi walked into the elevator. "It's nuts."

"Right," Steve said, pressing a button. "What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country."

He shot her a knowing look at the end of his rant.

"He did the same thing during World War II," Sora muttered to Kairi when he saw her confused expression.

"We're not at war, Captain," Maria rebutted.

"They are," Steve corrected her as the elevator closed.

"What a pleasant world this is," Kairi commented with a little bit of sarcasm.

"Don't worry," Sora assured her. "There are plenty of things on this world that make up for the problems we don't always have to face."

"Like what?" Kairi asked.

"Should I start with the Netflix or the Play Station and Xbox?" Sora asked Steve, who smirked.

Elsewhere in the tower, the Iron Legion robots arrived back and entered into their docking stations where they got their repairs, which happened to be right under one of the glass floor of the lab. Tony, Vanitas, and Bruce were in one part while Clint and Donald were being patched up in another part. Bruce walked up to Vanitas and Tony as they were passing by that glass wall, giving them a good view of Natasha, Goofy, and Mickey.

"Man, I missed this place," Vanitas admitted with a smile as he and Tony walked down a small set of stairs.

"How're they doing?" Bruce asked, walking up to them with a tablet in his hands.

"Unfortunately, they're still Barton and Donald," Tony said, looking through the glass at the two.

"That's terrible," Bruce said, looking through the same window.

"Ain't it just," Vanitas added.

"They're fine," Tony assured. "They're thirsty."

Cloud walked in and found himself surprised at the many tables filled with advanced technology in front of him.

"You get used to it," Bruce assured the young man, walking past him on the small stairs.

"All right," Tony said as he and Vanitas walked into the main part of the lab again. "Look alive Jarvis. It's playtime." Lights came on on the other side of the room. "We've only got a couple of days with this joystick, so let's make the most of it."

They walked up to the stand that was holding the scepter.

"And pretend I know what you're talking about," Vanitas announced with a smirk.

"Update me on the structural and compositional analysis," Tony instructed, taking out a small pad and pressing on it. That made lights appear around the data holding up the scepter.

" _The scepter is alien_ ," Jarvis informed them.

"Yeah, we... kinda got that," Vanitas commented.

" _There are elements I can't quantify_ ," Jarvis admitted.

"So there's elements you can?" Tony asked as he walked over to a table that over looked the living room above a smaller hanger, where they had had so many breakfasts and had that mini party some months prior.

" _The jewel appears to be a protective housing for something inside, something powerful_ ," Jarvis informed him.

Vanitas frowned in thought. The scepter had been given to Loki by Thanos, who was apparently after the Infinity Stones. If the jewel in the staff had something powerful inside, then did that share some connection to the stones?

"Like a reactor?" Tony asked, grabbing a blender with a green mixture inside.

" _Like a computer_ ," Jarvis corrected. " _I believe I'm deciphering code_."

"All that," Cloud said, walking up to view the scepter with Vanitas. "And this thing was used by a God of Mischief to control people's minds?"

"Yep," Tony confirmed, walking over. "Said God of Mischief did that to the archer being fixed up in there."

"That sounds about as believable as that guy back there turning into a giant green monster when he gets mad," Cloud commented with clear disbelief in his voice.

"I had a feeling some people wouldn't believe it," Vanitas muttered with a smirk.

In the smaller room, Clint and Donald winced as machines above them scanned at where their wounds were, with bandages over them.

"Are you sure they're gonna be okay?" Natasha asked, leaning down over Clint's head. She gestured to him and said, "Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together."

"There's no possibility of deterioration on Barton," Dr. Cho informed Natasha as she smirked. Bruce nodded along with her next words. "The nano molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacra."

"She's creating tissue," Bruce told Nat with a wide smirk.

"Luckily those Potions from the off worlders managed to help a lot," Dr. Cho admitted. She frowned at Donald, who was mostly recovered. "Although I don't understand why they had a greater impact on Mr. Donald."

"Differences between worlds?" Mickey guessed. "We don't entirely know how they work, either."

Dr. Cho nodded at Mickey's guess and looked at Natasha, gesturing to Clint.

"If you had brought him to my lab, the regeneration Cradle could do this in 20 minutes," she said.

"Oh, he's flat lining," Tony said as he and Vanitas walked in carrying drink carriers filled with the green drinks in to go cups. "Call it. Time?"

"And he was so young," Vanitas added in a distraught voice that didn't work with the wide smile.

"No, no, no, I'm gonna live forever," Clint denied with a smirk. He laughed, "I'm gonna be made of plastic. And I'm gonna spend eternity at the animal's kingdom."

"We could use an archer," Goofy told Mickey.

"He's joking," Vanitas informed the dog as he passed his friends cups of the drinks.

"Here's your beverage," Tony told Clint, handing him a cup.

"You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton," Helen told Clint with a smile. "Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference."

"I don't have a girlfriend," Clint told her, sipping through the straw on his cup.

"That I can't fix," Helen commented.

"Oh, don't tell me we gotta work on setting you up, too," Vanitas begged Clint in despair. "It's hard enough helping out the old man with _his_ love life."

Tony, Natasha, and even Clint and Mickey smirked at Vanitas's joke as they sipped their drinks. Clint stopped to wince, though.

"This is the next thing, Tony," Helen told Tony as she worked on a tablet. "Your clunky metal suits are gonna be left in the dust."

"That is exactly the plan," Tony told her.

"Can I keep them?" Vanitas asked. "I think they'd be great at birthday parties."

"I'll think about it," Tony told Vanitas before looking at Dr. Cho. "And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday."

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties," Helen told Tony, making him look a little surprised. She looked down. "...Will Thor be there?"

"Gawrsh, I think everybody'll be there," Goofy commented, taking a sip of his drink.

"Hook, line, and sinker," Vanitas muttered to Tony with a smirk.

Once they were finished with their drinks, Tony and Vanitas grabbed Bruce by a shoulder and started leading him back into the main lab.

"What's the rumpus?" he asked.

"Well, the scepter," Tony said, leading Bruce to a nearby computer.

"You won't believe what we found," Vanitas told Bruce.

"You see, we were wondering how Strucker got so inventive," Tony explained, stopping next to the desk and grabbing a high tech remote. "So, I've been analyzing the gem..." He held up the remote and pressed a button. "Inside. You may recognize..."

A yellow surge of lights surrounded Bruce, so he stepped out and stood next to Tony.

"Jarvis," Bruce greeted.

" _Doctor,_ " Jarvis greeted back.

"Him in his natural form," Vanitas said with a smile. He looked at Tony with a frown. "Wait, does that mean he's naked in front of us right now?"

Tony frowned.

"I'm pretty sure the answer to that is 'no'," he told Vanitas. He turned to Bruce. "Started out, Jarvis was just a natural language UI. Now he runs the Iron Legion." He gestured to the orange light that was the UI. "He runs more of the business than anyone besides Pepper."

"Oh," Bruce said with a slight nod.

"Top of the line," Tony elaborated.

"The shit," Vanitas said in a scratchy voice with a smile. "The doo-doo. The poopity pop!"

Vanitas laughed, and Tony and Bruce looked at him.

"Tales from the Hood," he said. "Too far?" He nodded his head. "Too far."

"Basically, he's the best," Tony told Bruce.

"Yes," Bruce agreed.

" _I suspect not for long,_ " Jarvis commented.

Tony took the remote and scanned the gem in the scepter.

"Meet the competition," he told Bruce.

He gestured with the remote, and blue light spewed out, forming itself into a large collection of lights larger than Jarvis.

"It's beautiful," Bruce said, walking forwards to look at it better.

"If... that's the right word," Vanitas muttered, not completely understanding what was going on.

"If you had to take a guess, what's it look like it's doing?" Tony asked.

"Like it's thinking," Bruce announced as the three started walking around the lights. "I mean, this could be... It's not a human mind."

"Mm-mmm," Tony hummed in confirmation.

"I mean, look at this," Bruce said, gesturing to the lights. "They're like neurons firing."

"Yeah, they're... something," Vanitas said, doing his usual system of acting like he understood even though they all knew he didn't.

"Down in Strucker's lab, we found some pretty advanced robotics work," Tony informed Bruce as started walking around the lights to observe them again. "They deep-sixed the data, but I gotta guess he was knocking on a very particular door."

Vanitas finally understood what they were talking about as Bruce stopped and looked at Tony.

"Artificial Intelligence," Bruce assessed.

"Strucker wanted his own Jarvis," Vanitas elaborated. He furrowed his eyebrows. "An evil Jarvis... *shutters* The world would never survive."

Tony leaned in close and muttered, "This could be it, guys. This could be the key to creating Ultron."

"What?" Vanitas asked as Bruce laughed lightly.

"I thought Ultron was a fantasy," Bruce pointed out.

"In the end we nixed the idea," Vanitas reminded Tony. "Because we didn't have a feasibly way to construct him." *** _3_ ***

"Yesterday, it was and we didn't," Tony told them. He gestured to the lights next to Jarvis. "If we can harness this power, apply it to my Iron Legion protocol?"

Bruce and Vanitas eyed the blue lights with skepticism.

"That's a man-sized 'if'," Bruce told Tony before turning towards a computer.

"Our job is 'if'," Tony pointed out as they walked across the tables to the window overlooking the window. "What if you were sipping margaritas on a sun-drenched beach, turning brown instead of green? Not looking over your shoulder for Veronica?"

"Don't hate," Bruce told him. "I helped design Veronica."

"She's bad-ass," Vanitas smirked, remembering the satellite device.

"As a worst-case measure, right?" Tony pointed out to Bruce as they kept walking along the desks of equipment. "How about a best case? What if the world was safe? What if, next time aliens roll into the club, and they will, they couldn't get past the bouncer?"

"The only people threatening the planet would be people," Bruce said in thought.

"Then we'd only have to deal with stopping muggers, rapists, and other mean pricks," Vanitas said, seeing what Tony's thought process on all this was.

"I wanna apply this to the Ultron program," Tony told them. "But Jarvis can't download a data schematic this dense. We can only do it while we have the scepter here. That's three days. Give me three days."

"So you're going for artificial intelligence, and you don't want to tell the team?" Bruce asked.

"That in itself says more about you than them, buddy," Vanitas commented.

"Right," Tony said, walking around them. "That's right. You know why? Because we don't have time for a city hall debate. I don't want to hear the 'man was not meant to meddle' medley."

"Man, could Xehanort have used that medley more in his youth," Vanitas muttered.

"I see a suit of armor around the world," Tony told Bruce.

"Sounds like a cold world, Tony," Bruce commented.

"I've seen colder," Tony rebutted.

"Are you sure this a good idea?" Vanitas asked.

"Not completely," Tony admitted before taking the remote back out of his pocket. "But this one, this very vulnerable blue one, it needs Ultron."

Tony turned away from them and walked towards the large blue lights again, already planning what to do.

"Peace in our time," he announced. "Imagine that."

Bruce and Vanitas thought about that for a second.

' _You think this is a good idea?_ ' Vanitas thought, which Bruce heard in his head.

' _Not completely_ ,' Bruce admitted, not that surprised after some of the stories Vanitas had told them. ' _But he might be onto something, so let's help to make sure things go right_.'

' _Yeah,_ ' Vanitas thought. ' _He's our friend, and if he's onto something, then we should help him out... Plus, if anything, we can at least contribute to make sure he doesn't blow himself up while trying to do this._ '

' _Very true,_ ' Bruce agreed. ' _Very true._ '

The two walked up next to Tony and observed the blue lights with him, already preparing the strategies they were gonna use over the next three days...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I am using more stuff from Final Fantasy lore for Sephiroth for this. (Thanks to an episode of Death Battle on YouTube. Sephiroth vs. Vergil) Not everything, though. The guy once shattered reality. That is way too OP for this story
> 
> *2 I remember a guy used that line in an early episode of Arrow when someone was telling him something about technology he didn't completely understand
> 
> *3 Living with them for a year, of course he helped them with planning Ultron. I just forgot to include any scenes because I forgot that it was something they had apparently already planned and decided wasn't worth it before this movie
> 
> I finally got around to playing Re:Mind yesterday. Went through the first part and started the LimitCut episode. And OH. MY. GOD!!! THAT WAS SO FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!
> 
> The Dark Inferno X, Anti-Aqua again, Terranort as Sora alone, the battles where you can play as Riku, Aqua, AND ROXAS!!! That dude is my absolute favorite character in the entire series, and I have been waiting for another chance to play as him for years. Oh, my god, it was so satisfying to be able to be him and using Oathkeeper and Oblivion all over again.
> 
> Going through Scala Ad Caelum was kinda fun, since I did kind of want to do that in the original version of III, what with how pretty it is, it seemed like it would be a fun world.
> 
> And holy shit, the team boss fight where you play as all the Guardians, that was just awesome. Hearing the interactions between characters as they fought off the Twelve Xehanorts was priceless. And even MORE holy shit, that Mickey part was flipping epic! I could go on all day from how awesome that is!
> 
> And I finally started the Limit Cut episode and got to the Garden of Assemblage. It felt so good to have the Radiant Garden group, and I was a little surprised that we get to play as Riku a bit there. I got to start the fights, and pretty quickly got killed by Vanitas (Canon). That was... fun? 😅
> 
> Probably gonna have to get the profile where I'm at a higher level for that one. Then I'll let you guys know what I thought of the Secret Episode. You know, once I get there and do the fight I learned about pretty much a week after Re:Mind came out that I'm pretty excited for
> 
> ...Anyway, I'm letting you guys know now that when we get to III and we're at that final part, I'm obviously gonna be including the extra battle where you play as Roxas into the story. Basically doing the Re:Mind version without all the background Sora. That just makes more sense to me


	3. The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group has their party to celebrate their victory against Strucker, which is soon interrupted by a very uninvited guest...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forgot to add Rhodey and Sam into the character tags before. They're not prominent in the movie, but they've still got some good scenes, so I made sure to add them to the roster

The trio spent the next couple of days in and out of the lab, working on a way to bind the AI in the scepter into the Ultron program. It certainly wasn't easy. At one moment, they had to deal with a smoking machine. At another moment, Tony laid a bunch of papers together on the ground to try to make sense of them. And when they managed to bring together some of the lights into a working system, they broke apart again with the word "Failed" coming up in big, red letters. Tony sighed out, took a sip out of his mug and turned to walk away while Bruce and Vanitas sighed out in disappointment.

Pretty soon, it was the day of their planned party, and afterwords the scepter would be going back to Asgard with Thor. Tony was in the lab with Vanitas, looking at Jarvis, while Bruce was off getting ready for the party.

"What did we miss?" Tony asked Jarvis.

" _I'll continue to run variations on the interface_ ," Jarvis told him. " _But you should probably prepare for your guests._ "

"Man's right," Vanitas agreed as he and Tony started walking out of the lab. "You always invite a lot of people to these things. Gotta be presentable for them."

Jarvis started turning off the lights in the lab as they reached the door.

" _I'll notify you if there are any developments_ ," Jarvis informed them.

"Thanks, buddy," Tony told their UI.

"You're a real big help," Vanitas said with a grateful smile.

" _Enjoy yourselves, sirs_ ," Jarvis told them.

"We always do," Tony remarked as they walked out of the lab as the windows went tinted.

With just a few hours left, the two got ready for the party in their own ways. While Tony went off to dress in a fancy suit, Vanitas grabbed the one from his bedroom that he had worn at their previous parties. It was nothing fancy, just a red dress shirt and a black blazer with matching black dress pants. Of course, being him, he still wore his normal black and white sneakers with the ensemble.

Pretty soon, he had joined all his friends as they dressed as fancy as they could for the party in the living room. They had a pool table out that some of the veterans invited did not hesitate to play on, along with some upbeat music playing out of the speakers.

They all had their own ways of fun. Natasha sat and talked with Rhodey, Thor told stories of the monsters he had faced to some of the invited veterans, Clint and Donald talked with Helen, and Vanitas and Sora stood with Steve and Sam as the latter two played pool.

"Oh, whoo!" Sam cheered as the balls started rolling. He gestured with his hand. "Come back, come back, come back."

"Man, we should get a table like this at home," Sora said with a smile.

"Yeah, it's very good to have when you're an expert and wanna make a lot of money," Vanitas chuckled.

He went off, and soon enough, Kairi was at Sora's side instead.

"Okay, I'm starting to see the appeal in this place," she admitted to Sora with a slight smile.

"Yes!" Sora cheered. "So we can definitely make trips back in the future!"

"I never said we couldn't," Kairi told him, a little confused.

"I know," Sora admitted. "But I wanted you to come with during those next times. I wouldn't be as fun without you coming along."

Kairi smiled, touched by how much Sora wanted to spend time with her. The two hugged, and then the mood was broken by Sam mock gushing, "Awww!"

Kairi promptly flipped him the bird, even though the smile never dropped from her face as she and Sora kept hugging.

Near the bar, Thor, Vanitas, Tony, and Riku ended up near Rhodey and Maria as the former started telling a War Machine story.

"But, you know, the suit can take the weight, right?" Rhodey asked as he grabbed a bottle. "So I take the tank, fly it right up to the general's palace, drop it at his feet. I'm, like, 'Boom. You looking for this'?"

Rhodey smiled, and Riku looked impressed. The others did not, which made the smile drop from Rhodey's face.

"'Boom. Are you looking for...'" Rhodey started to repeat himself before he gave up. "Why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else, that story kills."

"Yeah, even I'm impressed by it," Riku told them, wondering why the others weren't impressed.

"That's the whole story?" Thor asked.

"Yeah, it's a War Machine story," Rhodey told them.

"Oh, it's very good then," Thor said as Rhodey looked to the side in annoyance. Thor laughed, "It's impressive."

He lifted his glass to his mouth as Rhodey smiled again.

"Quality save," he said.

"Bitching," Riku said with a smile.

"Hey, you used it right," Vanitas congratulated, patting Riku on the shoulder.

"So, no Pepper?" Rhodey asked, looking at Tony. "She's not coming?"

"No," Tony said.

"What about Jane?" Maria asked. "Where are the ladies gentlemen?"

"Yeah, it's a total sausage fest here," Vanitas said, raising his glass to his mouth.

"Should you be drinking that?" Maria asked.

"I'm twenty-five," Vanitas quickly reminded her, even though he knew for a fact he was still fifteen after not aging for about a decade.

"Oh, Ms. Potts has a company to run," Tony said with slowly.

"Yes, I'm not even sure what country Jane's in," Thor admitted. "Her work on the Convergence has made her the world's foremost astronomer."

"And the company that Pepper runs is the largest tech conglomerate on Earth," Tony said, looking at Thor. The two looked at the others with smiles. "It's pretty exciting."

"There's even talk of Jane getting a, um..." Thor said as he thought for a second, trying to remember the name. Maria, Rhodey, and Vanitas shared knowing looks. "A Nobel Prize."

"Wow," Riku said. "If you guys weren't Avengers, I'd say you were trophy boyfriends."

Vanitas wondered where Riku learned that term, but chuckled nonetheless.

"Yeah, they must be busy, because they would hate missing you guys get together," Maria commented with a smile. She then obviously fake coughed to comment, "Testosterone!"

"Oh, my goodness," Rhodey said with fake care, going with her joke.

"Excuse me," Maria said, placing a hand on her chest.

"Want a lozenge?" Rhodey asked, leading her away.

"You guys can compete about your girlfriends all you want," Vanitas said, grabbing another bottle. "But we're gonna go socialize."

Vanitas led Riku over to where the pool table was now freeing up. Once they were gone, Thor chuckled and remarked to Tony, "But Jane's better."

On the other side of the room, Steve had removed his blazer and was walking with Sora, Kairi, and Sam, with the two Avengers telling their friends about what had happened in Sokovia.

"Sounds like a hell of a fight," Sam commented. "Sorry I missed it."

"If I had known it was gonna be a firefight, I absolutely would have called," Steve assured the man as they walked up the stairs.

"Yeah, those Falcon wings sound awesome," Sora commented.

"No, no, I'm not actually sorry," Sam told them. "I'm just trying to sound tough."

"Yeah, but these guys aren't the brightest with that stuff," Kairi informed him.

"I'm aware," Sam commented as Steve and Sora pretended to look offended as they walked up onto a balcony overlooking the living room. He looked at Steve again as he carried a glass of alcohol. "I'm very happy chasing cold leads on our missing persons case. Avenging is your worlds. Your worlds are crazy."

"Aren't they just?" Kairi admitted as they looked down at the room.

"Be they ever so humble," Steve informed them.

"You find a place in Brooklyn yet?" Sam asked Steve, taking a sip of his drink.

"I don't think I can afford a place in Brooklyn," Steve remarked.

"Well, home is home, you know?" Sam asked with a slight cock of the head.

Steve thought about his words.

"You'll find a place," Sora assured him. "Although I don't know how you couldn't afford a place since you're an Avenger and you've saved America three times."

"The job doesn't pay as much as you'd expect," Steve admitted.

"This economy," Kairi commented with a shake of the head.

Not too far away, Rhodey told his War Machine story to a group of different people, who ended up laughing as his one liner at the end. He got a fist bump from a party goer before putting on a serious face.

"Great story," Mickey complimented, which surprised Rhodey a bit.

"Sorry," Rhodey said. "Still getting used to this."

"You're not the only one," Mickey admitted.

He then leaned in next to a blonde woman in a dress and smiled as she took a picture of the two of them together. He quickly dropped the smile as he looked at Rhodey again.

"That's the 20th person here who asked me for a selfie with them," Mickey admitted, not sounding very happy about it.

"Well, you are a pretty famous childhood figure on this world," Rhodey pointed out. "All thanks to Walt Disney."

"I knew that man had different intentions than he said when he visited our town," Mickey commented, looking down and shaking his head.

"Wait a second," Rhodey said, sitting down in the chair next to Mickey. "You actually knew Walt?"

"Yeah," Mickey said. "He came to our world once and helped us a bit in designs for our town. So, we named it after him. But he took great interest in everyone in our town, including Pete, and my brother Oswald, at first. But once he met me, he sorta gave up on Oswald and focused entirely on me." *** _1_ ***

"Sorta makes sense," Rhodey commented. "You're pretty much the icon when it comes to Disney nowadays. Some people don't even know you have a brother."

"Oh, he's not gonna like that," Mickey commented. "We never really talk much, anyway. After I became King, he just sort of left the Town, because he never liked the attention he got just for being my brother. I never thought about how tough it is for him to live in my shadow like that."

"It's tough, I'll give him that," Rhodey said, thinking about how long it took for him to be taken seriously, and not just be seen as another part of Iron Man.

Their attentions were soon drawn to Cloud sitting in a chair across the table from them. He had grabbed a drink and was sipping it down, avoiding eye contact at all costs. He was never good at these kinds of public gatherings, even on Radiant Garden. Stuck right in the middle of a room with people he didn't know. And it didn't help that the only four people he did know, he didn't talk with a lot.

"Hey, Cloud isn't it?" Mickey greeted, causing the blonde to look up. "We briefly met back at Hollow Bastion."

"Oh, right, hi," Cloud said.

"I just finished a story about an adventure while I was War Machine," Rhodey said. "From what the others said, you've been around quite a bit. You got a story?"

Cloud thought for a second, deciding whether or not he'd actually say anything or not. But with many people's eyes on him, he decided to give into the peer pressure.

"Well..." Cloud started. "There was this time I was attacked by a dragon, so I punched it in the face and cut off its head."

That made people go wide eyed.

"Dude, how?" Rhodey asked with eagerness in his voice.

Not too far away, Steve, Vanitas, Thor, Goofy, and Donald had gotten together in front of the veterans. Thor took out a flask and opened it up, making things pretty clear that it was alcohol.

"I gotta have some of that," one of the veterans requested.

"Oh, no, no, no," Thor denied, pouring some of the contents in his a cup he passed to Steve. "See this... this was aged for 1,000 years in the barrels built from the wreck of Grunhel's fleet." He poured some more into a glass for himself. "It is not meant for mortal men."

"Neither was Omaha Beach, blondie," a veteran remarked. "Stop trying to scare us. Come on."

"Hey, Stan Lee's got a point," Vanitas announced as he and Donald held up their shot glasses.

"Hit us," Donald requested.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Goofy said as Thor took the three shot glasses.

Steve shrugged his shoulders, and Thor poured his Asgardian drink in the glasses.

"All right," Thor said, passing the glasses back.

Pretty soon, Stan Lee had to be carried out of the room, as he drunkenly slurred, "Excelsior."

Pretty much the same effect was happening to Vanitas and Donald. Donald laughed a lot before Goofy picked him up and carried him to a nearby couch. Vanitas grabbed onto Thor's shoulder and pointed his other hand at him.

"That... was... awesome!" he exclaimed. Right before falling directly to the ground. *** _2_ ***

"Ah, newbie drunks," Tony smirked with Thor.

Over at a bar stand, Riku sat on a stool, drinking the offered Roy Rogers from Natasha. He was hesitant from the name alone, but found that it tasted pretty good. While Riku drank that, she poured a red drink and smirked at Bruce as he walked up to the bar stand, taking off his glasses and smiling at her.

"How'd a nice girl like you wind up working in a dump like this?" Bruce asked.

Starting an act, she looked down and said, "Fella done me wrong."

"Got a lousy taste in men, kid," Bruce commented as she poured the second of two large red drinks.

"He's not so bad," Natasha said, sliding one of the drinks to Bruce before taking the other. "Well, he has a temper. Deep down, he's all fluff."

Since he was sitting not too far from them, Riku felt sort of like he was interrupting as he figured out what they were talking about. But the slight despair in his chest over not having something like they had made him look out in front of him, anchoring him in place. So, he ended up hearing their entire conversation.

"Fact is, he's not like anybody I've ever known," Natasha admitted after Bruce took a sip of his drink. Bruce looked down and offered a smile, and Natasha looked down with a slight smile. "All my friends are fighters. And here comes this guy... spends his life avoiding the fight because he knows he'll win."

"Sounds amazing," Bruce commented, raising his drink to his lips.

"He's also a huge dork," Natasha commented. Bruce placed down his drink and looked down, leaning on the bar stand. "Chicks dig that."

Bruce looked unconvinced.

"So, what do you think?" Natasha asked. "Should I fight this, or run with it?"

"Run with it, right?" Bruce asked her. "Or did he... Was he... What did he do that was so wrong to you?"

"Not a damn thing," Natasha admitted. With a smirk, she added, "But never say never."

She took her glass and started to leave the bar stand, while Steve sat down on Bruce's right. Bruce stared after her as she left.

"And I thought Sora and Kairi were obvious," Riku commented, surprising Bruce.

"How much did you hear?" he asked in worry.

"I don't think you want me to answer that," Riku admitted, taking a sip of his drink.

"It's nice," Steve told Bruce.

"What is?" he stammered out.

"You and Romanoff," Steve told him with a smirk.

"No, we haven't..." Bruce said, standing up from the bar. "That wasn't..."

"It's okay," Steve assured him with a wave of the hand. "Nobody's breaking any bylaws. It's just she's not the most open person in the world." Bruce grabbed his glasses again. "But with you she seems very relaxed."

"No. Natasha, she's just..." Bruce denied. "She likes to flirt."

"Keep telling yourself that," Riku told him.

"I've seen her flirt, up close," Steve said, grabbing a bottle from the bar and walking next to his friend. "Look, as maybe the world's leading authority on waiting too long, don't. You both deserve a win."

The two friends smiled at each other.

"Hey, can you tell Sora and Kairi that?" Riku asked as he and Steve started walking off.

"I'll see what I can do," Steve assured him.

Bruce looked down and scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"Wait, what do you mean 'up close'?" he asked.

After a little while, more and more of the guests had left, so the only people left in the living room were the Avengers and their friends. Tony, Thor, Steve, Vanitas, Sora, Natasha, Bruce, Clint, Maria, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Riku, Kairi, and Cloud were gathered together on the couches and telling stories. Helen was also asleep on one of the couches, but they didn't pay her any attention.

"And I was doing pretty well in the fight on my own," Vanitas said, gesturing to Riku while also pressing an ice patch onto the top of his head. "But then Riku gave into his darkness. That burned me up a bit, and burned out the SHIELD jacket I had."

People exclaimed in surprise while Riku looked down with an embarrassed smile.

"Yeah, that wasn't my best moment," Riku admitted.

"The only time you won against me," Vanitas remarked.

"You're not that pissed about it, are you?" Clint asked.

"Oh, no, I never feel bad about losing," Vanitas admitted. "I'm upset because he destroyed the SHIELD outfit. I wore that a lot, it had sentimental value 'cause I wore it during some big moments over the past year."

Sora, Tony, Bruce, and Mickey nodded in understanding. Natasha furrowed her eyebrows.

"You know that was a woman's suit, right?" she asked him.

Vanitas looked right up and frowned.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked.

"That was a woman's outfit," Natasha repeated. "I mean, guys at SHIELD don't tend to be below five foot five. What surprised me most was that the arms were the right size."

She took a sip of the drink she had, while Vanitas frowned with his jaw dropped.

"You mean to tell me," Vanitas started. "I wore that thing every day for a year... and no one thought to tell me that I was wearing a woman's suit?"

"We didn't know," Tony admitted.

"Neither did I," Sora admitted.

"I knew," Donald said.

"And why didn't you say anything?" Vanitas asked.

"How would that be funny?" Donald asked.

He and some members of the group started laughing, with even Cloud cracking a smirk.

"Remind me to kick your ass when I'm not hungover," Vanitas told Donald.

The conversation soon shifted to Sora, Mickey, Riku, and Vanitas, and the Keyblade.

"Everything we've been though, you can't deny that we're pretty good Keyblade wielders," Sora said in a trying not to brag voice.

"Yeah, we're pretty badass," Riku said with a slight smile.

"Uh, yeah, slicing buildings to pieces and blowing up a dragon can qualify as 'pretty good' and 'badass'," Tony said with a laugh.

"Yeah, you guys are real powerful," Vanitas said, taking a sip of his drink. "Makes me wonder how you guys'll be when you break Master."

That confused Sora and Riku, which was saying something. Riku wasn't one to get confused that much.

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"Well, technically, you guys aren't Masters yet," Vanitas told them.

"What?" Riku asked, confused.

"He's right," Mickey told them. "Neither of you have taken the Mark of Mastery exam to actually become Keyblade Masters. You just sort of learned how to use your Keyblades on the spot and had to work with what you had."

"So... every time someone called me a Keyblade Master..." Sora said in realization.

"They were dead wrong," Vanitas told him. "That shit takes years of practice. You have no idea how much I've wanted to correct everyone we met who referred to you as 'Master'. I had to start biting my tongue." *** _3_ ***

"Hey, Mickey, you said you were a Master, right?" Bruce asked.

"That's right," Mickey confirmed with a nod of his head.

"How long did it take you to break rank?" Natasha asked.

"About... seven years," Mickey admitted.

Sora and Riku went wide eyed at that.

"V, how long'd it take you?" Sora quickly asked.

"About three," Vanitas said. "But that's 'cause I also had my powers and shit."

"We're screwed," Riku muttered to Sora.

The conversation soon changed to Thor and Mjölnir, which was resting on the table. This brightened the mood considerably.

"But it's a trick," Clint said, twirling drumsticks in his hands similar to how Thor had spun the hammer in battle.

"No, no, it's much more than that," Thor corrected him.

"'Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power'," Clint imitated Odin while gesturing to Mjölnir, causing people to laugh. "Whatever man, it's a trick." He gestured to Sora. "Same's gotta be with the kid's Keyblade."

"Hey, don't you remember when you hung it quite simply on a coat rack?" Vanitas reminded Thor with a smirk. "I don't think the coat rack was worthy. There's gotta be a gimmick."

"Be my guests," Thor said, gesturing to Mjölnir.

"Same with the Keyblade," Sora said, summoning his Kingdom Key and placing it down next to the hammer. *** _4_ ***

"Come on," Tony told Clint.

"Really?" Clint asked. He placed both drum sticks in one hand as he stood up.

"Yeah," Tony said.

"Oh, this is gonna be beautiful," Rhodey commented.

"Ain't it just," Vanitas commented.

"Clint, you've had a tough week," Tony told Clint. "We won't hold it against you if you can't get it up."

This caused some laughs to erupt amongst the friends.

"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint asked Thor with a smirk, referencing that short period where Thor had been banished to Earth and was briefly not worthy.

Thor smirked back. With his drum sticks in one hand, Clint grasped Mjölnir in the other and attempted to lift it up... unsuccessfully.

He laughed out, "Still don't know how you do it!"

Clint then picked up the Keyblade and held it up in a way that looked pretty cool. But then it disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in Sora's hand.

"Go figure," Sora commented, placing the Keyblade back down on the table.

"Smell the silent judgement?" Tony quipped.

"Please, Stark, by all means," Clint said, gesturing to Tony.

Tony stood up and sighed out while unbuttoning his suit jacket.

"Okay," Maria commented.

"This is gonna be good," Donald commented.

"Uh-oh," Rhodey said.

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge," Tony said, passing Clint as he walked to the hammer.

"Get after it," Clint told him.

"It's physics," Tony said, passing his hand through the wrap.

"Physics," Bruce repeated.

"Right, so, if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?" Tony asked Thor as the others smirked.

"Yes, of course," Thor told him.

"I will be reinstituting _prima nocta_ ," Tony announced.

"Of course he will," Kairi commented with a roll of her eyes.

"What's _prima nocta_?" Sora asked.

"You'll find out when you're older," Riku told him.

Tony grasped Mjölnir with both hands and attempted to lift it up, to no avail. When that didn't work, he took his hand out of the wrap.

"I'll be right back," Tony said.

While he was gone, Riku, Donald, and Goofy tried, to no avails. Riku admitted he saw that coming, Donald frowned in disdain, and Goofy pulled so hard it slipped out of his hand and he fell to the floor. He swore he was okay.

"I'm already a king of one kingdom," Mickey said when they wanted him to try. "It's hard enough to manage just one. Asgard's all yours, Thor."

Tony returned with one of his gauntlets on his left arm. He pulled hard, then when that didn't work, he had a mini rocket appear next to his wrist and ignite, to no avail. When _that_ didn't work, Rhodey got one of his War Machine gauntlets and started pulling with Tony.

"Are you even pulling?" Rhodey asked.

"Are you on my team?" Tony countered.

"Just represent," Rhodey told him. "Pull."

"All right, let's go," Tony said as they kept pulling to no avail.

When they eventually gave up, Cloud got up and put both hands on the hammer. He exclaimed as he pulled, to no avail.

"I kinda saw it coming, too," he admitted.

Cloud then tried the Keyblade. He twirled it in a circle, but then it disappeared in a flash of light.

"Sorry," Sora said, placing the Kingdom Key back on the table.

"Saw that coming, too," Cloud admitted.

Kairi stood up and attempted at Mjölnir, but failed at lifting it.

"Even the princess can't lift it," Vanitas commented.

"Hey, that's derogatory," Natasha said, looking offended.

"Not when she's an actual princess," Riku informed her.

"Wait, really?" Natasha asked, frowning and looking at Kairi.

"Yeah," Kairi confirmed. "I'm one of the seven princesses of heart."

That actually surprised some of the others.

"No offense, but..." Steve started to say.

"You don't exactly act like a princess," Cloud commented.

"Not all of us are those regal ass stereotypes you see in those movies," Kairi told them with a smirk as she went to her seat next to Sora again.

Bruce then went to the table for his turn at trying to lift the hammer. He grabbed Mjölnir with both hands and yelled out as he attempted to lift it. He then raised his arms acting like he was turning into the Hulk, and stopped as he smiled at the others. Clint and Maria raised an eyebrow at him while the others smirked.

"Huh?" he asked them.

The Keyblade had a similar effect. He sat back down, and during all of this, Helen had woken back up. She smiled as Steve stood up and walked over to the hammer.

"Go ahead, Steve," Tony told him. "No pressure."

Steve rolled up his sleeves and reached down to grabbed the hammer.

"Come on, Cap," Clint assured him.

"You got this," Sora assured.

Steve pulled at the hammer to lift it up, getting it to shift a bit, which made Thor look a little afraid. But when he pulled again, nothing happened. Thor sighed out in relief as Steve let go. He raised his hands in surrender with a smirk as he walked back over to his seat.

"Nothing," Thor laughed.

Steve sat back down on Sora's other side, who raised an eyebrow at him. Steve looked at Thor to make sure he wasn't looking, then smirked at Sora and winked. Sora made sure to hide his surprise as he stood up for his turn.

"All right, Kid Keyslinger," Tony said.

"You got this, bro," Vanitas assured Sora.

Sora grabbed Mjölnir with both hands, and like with Steve, it shifted slightly. Everyone exclaimed in wonder, but Sora also went the route Steve went and acted like he couldn't lift it.

"Nope," Sora said, making himself sound apologetic.

"It's all right, Friend Sora," Thor assured him as he went to his seat.

Sora sat back down between Kairi and Steve, and returned the smirk and wink to Steve. The two smiled and looked at the hammer once again as Vanitas stood up.

"Hopefully this'll ease my embarrassment for the woman's suit," Vanitas commented.

He gripped the hammer with both hands and pulled, but then exclaimed as nothing happened.

"Damn it," Vanitas laughed.

"Well, not the worst thing that happened to you," Riku assured him.

"Yeah," Vanitas agreed with a smirk as he sat back in his seat.

With everyone else done, their attentions were drawn to Natasha. Bruce even gestured to her and Tony cleared his throat at her.

"And, Widow?" Bruce asked.

"Oh, no, no," Natasha told them. "That's not a question I need answered."

"All deference to the Man Who Wouldn't Be King, but it's rigged," Tony said to Thor.

"You bet your ass," Clint agreed, moving past Tony.

"Steve, he said a bad language word," Maria said, pointing up at Clint with a beer in her hand.

Steve sighed out and asked Tony, "Did you tell everyone about that?"

"Obviously," Vanitas told him.

"The handle's imprinted, right?" Tony asked as Rhodey laughed and held his beer. "Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints,' is, I think the literal translation."

"Yeah, that sounds more plausible," Vanitas commented. "The Keyblade is mostly 'cause it chose Sora."

"Yeah, that's an even easier translation for him," Tony admitted. "But not the hammer."

"Yes," Thor said, standing up. "It's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one."

He picked up Mjölnir and threw it up, making it spin. He caught it easily and looked at the others.

"You're all not worthy," Thor told them, trying to keep the cockiness out of his voice.

That caused groans of annoyance to break out amongst the group, including one, "Oh, come on!"

As Thor smiled and raised his drink up to his lips, a high pitched ringing sound started blaring out of nowhere, surprising everyone on the room into putting down their alcoholic drinks. Tony and Vanitas winced in confusion as the former took out a high tech remote.

"Worthy..." a male voice growled out, garnering their attentions.

Everyone looked towards the part of the living room underneath the lab just below them, where they saw a jumbled together Iron Legion robot facing away from them. That confused them all.

"No," the robot said, turning to face them and walk forwards, leaking oil onto the floor. "How could you be worthy?" It gestured to them all. "You're all killers."

"Stark," Steve said.

"Jarvis," Tony said into his remote.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep," the robot told them. "Or, I was a dream.

"Reboot Legionnaire OS," Tony instructed, tapping the remote. "We've got a buggy suit."

"I don't think the suits had voiced before," Vanitas rebutted.

"There was this terrible noise," the robot admitted. "And I was tangled in... in... strings." Everyone just stared at the robot, confusion growing even more on all of their faces. "I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked.

"Who did you kill?" Sora asked, grabbing his Keyblade.

"Wouldn't have been my first call," the robot admitted. "But, down in the real world, we're faced with ugly choices."

"Who sent you?" Thor asked.

The robot then made a noise like it was rewinding tape. It then played back Tony's voice, " _I see a suit of armor around the world_."

"Ultron," Bruce said in realization.

"Maybe he wasn't a good idea," Vanitas winced as Tony went wide eyed.

"In the flesh," Ultron told them. "Or, no, not yet. Not this chrysalis." He looked down at his hobbled together body while the others either shared looks or got their weapons ready. "But I'm ready. I'm on mission."

"What mission?" Natasha asked.

"Peace in our time," Ultron repeated Tony's words from three days prior.

Four Iron Legion suits then burst out of the walls behind him and flew out. Everyone scattered and Steve kicked the table up as the suits got close. But then it knocked the table into him and sent him back down one of the staircases. Maria aimed her handgun and fired at one of the suits while Vanitas pulled out one of his own and fired with her.

"Where were you holding that?" Donald asked, summoning his staff.

"You really don't want to know," Vanitas told him as he fired.

Thor knocked aside an Iron Legion bot with Mjölnir while Tony, Rhodey, Sora, and Riku jumped over the railing and slid down the glass towards Ultron. But then Tony was knocked through a bookcase by an Iron Legion bot, Sora was picked up and got choke-slammed through the pool table by the same bot, and Riku and Rhodey got knocked back by blasts from Ultron. Rhodey got knocked through the glass and fell onto one of the walkways of the hanger below them.

"Rhodey! Riku!" Maria called out as Thor flew up onto one of the walkways above them.

Thor hit one of the Iron Legion bots with Mjölnir, knocking it through some tables and chairs. Back on the second level, Clint and Kairi slid under another table as one of the bots blasted at them. Cloud then launched himself up from that table and kicked the bot, knocking it right towards Mickey, who slashed at it with his Keyblade.

Bruce and Natasha dodged laser blasts by climbing over the bar to hide behind it. Bruce ended up landing a little roughly, with his face finding itself right against Natasha's chest.

"Sorry," Bruce told her, out of breath from the running.

"Don't turn green," Natasha told him.

"I won't," Bruce assured her.

Tony soon recovered and grabbed an ice pick, while Natasha grabbed a Glock that was stored under the bar counter. She fired up at a flying Iron Legion robot before Steve jumped onto its back. The robot flew itself back and smashed Steve into the brick wall behind it, giving Natasha and Bruce the distraction they needed to run. The Iron Legion robot threw Steve to the ground before it started blasting at the two as it ran up the stairs. Natasha fired at it, to no avail.

Clint and Kairi slid down a flat lining next to a staircase as a robot blasted a large pane of glass next to them, so they ended up landing on shards, causing them to wince.

"Why does this always happen?" Clint asked himself.

While Thor literally ripped the bot he was fighting to pieces, Donald blasted Thundaga at the prominent one in the air, to no avail. So, Tony jumped onto its back with his ice pick in hand as it kept saying, "We are here to help."

"Stark!" Steve called out.

"One sec, one sec, one sec," Tony muttered to himself, getting his ice pick ready.

The remaining half of the Iron Legion bot Thor had been fighting flew towards Helen, who was hiding behind a piano. But then it stopped as Ultron realized she could be useful. Steve then grabbed it.

"Thor!" he called out, throwing the bot to the blonde.

Thor yelled out as he crushed the bot to the ground with Mjölnir.

Clint retrieved Steve's shield as Tony jabbed the ice pick right through the robot he was on, causing the both of them to fall to the ground.

During all of this, Vanitas had deposited his empty handgun and had resorted to hand to hand combat with one of the bots. He wasn't doing that well.

"Turns out, when you can feel things, it's pretty easy to lose a fight to a robot," Vanitas quipped as the cyborg punched him in the face so hard it sent him flying across the room.

Cloud yelled out as he jumped up and kicked the Iron Legion bot with both legs, knocking it to the ground. Goofy and Mickey pinned it to the ground with their weapons while Cloud walked right over to the head. He then kicked really hard, knocking the head right off the robot.

"Bad-ass," Vanitas remarked through his very bruised face.

"Hey, Cap!" Clint called out.

He threw the shield right towards Steve, who jumped up in a spin and caught the shield before throwing it at the last bot in the air. The shield broke the bot right in half, sending the pieces to the ground as it "died."

"That was dramatic," Ultron commented.

"You think?" Sora remarked, wincing as he felt the broken pieces of pool table on his back.

Tony winced as he forced himself into a sitting position on a railing next to the stairs.

"I'm sorry, I know you mean well," Ultron told them. "You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to... evolve?"

Ultron leaned down and picked up the top half of the Iron Legion bot at his feet by the head.

"With these? These puppets," Ultron said before the face plate broke off and he threw the remains back to the ground. "There's only one path to peace. The Avengers' extinction.

Thor pulled back his arm with his hammer, but then Vanitas and Cloud appeared in front of Ultron out of seemingly nowhere. Cloud jumped up and kicked Ultron with both feet again, knocking him into the wall. When Ultron started to recover again, Vanitas called upon his super strength (not that easily), and punched Ultron right in the head, knocking it and some of the gears off as the pieces fell to the floor.

"I had strings, but now I'm free," Ultron muttered before the light died from his body.

"Talk about your party crashers," Vanitas quipped to try to lighten the tension. It didn't work.

* * *

In the underground HYDRA lab below the castle in Sokovia, the lights came on along the workstations as blue light appeared in the face plate of one of the prototypes that were similar to the Iron Man suit.

"There are no strings on me," Ultron sang to himself as the equipment went to work, building a new body for him. "There are no strings on me."

However, the AI was then very surprised and confused when he saw in the security cameras as various patterns appeared in the air above him, along with some bright lights. In the middle of those patterns and lights shot out a beam that made a large circle of light appear. And when that light died, a silver haired man dressed in black with one black wing behind his right shoulder slowly stood up. *** _5_ ***

"What is this world?" Sephiroth asked himself.

"You are on Earth," Ultron answered.

Sephiroth turned towards the sound of a voice, but was confused to see there wasn't anyone around him.

"Who said that?" he asked, reaching for his Masamune sword.

"I am here," Ultron said.

Sephiroth's attention was drawn to the bits of armor on one of the tables in front of him.

"Cybernetic life," he muttered to himself. "Interesting."

"Why are you here?" Ultron asked.

"I am looking for a blonde man called Cloud," Sephiroth told him. "I am here to help him realize that he must give in and return to the darkness. Since I highly doubt that little tramp of his is here, then it should be much easier to accomplish than it would have been before."

"You might have some trouble," Ultron admitted, remembering said blonde haired man who had helped destroy his last body. "He is with allies that will help him."

"Then I'll tear them apart," Sephiroth said.

"Some of them are Keyblade Wielders," Ultron informed him.

Sephiroth paused at that, remembering how he had been bested in battle by the brunette boy with the Keyblade. Then again, he hadn't used everything he had against the kid, but Keyblade _Wielders_...

"Who are you?" Sephiroth asked.

"I am Ultron," Ultron said. "And you and I are alike. We both want to return the world to what it should be. Together, we can destroy the Avengers, bring the blonde back to his senses, and restore the world. What do you say?"

Sephiroth thought for a second. It wouldn't hurt to have help take those kids and animals out. He wouldn't want to expend all of his energy after all. Plus, if one of them somehow managed to actually perform a killing blow, it'd be better for someone else to receive it rather than him. Unbeknownst to the One Winged Angel, Ultron was having pretty similar thoughts involving the arrangement between the two.

"My name is Sephiroth," Sephiroth said. "And you have a deal."

Ultron would have smirked if he had a mouth. He then resumed singing to himself as the machines went back to work...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I remember hearing that story from... somewhere. So I decided to incorporate it a bit for this to show how the Disney characters are cartoons on Earth. Is it wonky? Yes. Do I care? No.
> 
> *2 First time Vanitas gets drunk. And of course it's in a comedic way
> 
> *3 Someone had to point it out for them before Master Yen Sid broke the ice in 3D. Man, I almost forgot to add this part
> 
> *4 Thank you, James, for the suggestion of adding the Keyblade
> 
> *5 I decided to go with Sephiroth's appearance in the Platinum Match for KHI. Nothing wrong with his appearance in KHII, since it's kinda similar, but it doesn't include the patterns in the air. I thought those were nice and badass and should've been included
> 
> Ultron and Sephiroth are here, and now they're working together, even it's sort of a toxic relationship where they're each keeping the other along just in case one of their enemies manage to successfully manage to kill them. But it's a partnership nonetheless, and they're gonna tear some shit up
> 
> You know, I'm starting to think this one might take the title of Longest Mostly MCU Story. There's just so much more I can do with all the extra characters added in, both hero and villain


	4. The Men in the Church

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers recuperate from the attack, while Ultron and Sephiroth get some allies...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the update took so long. Thursday is never good 'cause I have arrangements, and yesterday, I was... busy.

After patching up and changing, everyone converged in the lab to check to see what all had happened while they were partying. Needless to say, it wasn't a pretty sight. Iron Legion suits were burned out, broken, or otherwise destroyed, equipment was thrown all around, broken in their own ways, and Jarvis was unresponsive. Tony and Vanitas feared the worst as they remembered Ultron saying he had killed someone. The worst part was that the scepter had been stolen by one of the bots on their way out.

"All our work is gone," Bruce said with dismay as he looked around the lab, and Tony and Vanitas looked at the closest broken suit. "Ultron cleared out. He used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron," Steve repeated the name.

"He's been in everything," Natasha informed them. "Files, surveillance."

"Basically, anything that could be connected through computers," Kairi remarked.

"And now he probably knows more about us than we know about each other," Natasha added with crossed arms.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet," Rhodey said, walking forwards with one hand on his arm. "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"What do you mean?" Sora asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Nuclear codes," Maria answered.

"Nuclear codes," Rhodey repeated.

"Oh, that would not be good," Sora said, eyes widening in realization.

"Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can," Rhodey announced.

"Nukes?" Natasha asked as Tony pulled out his remote. "He said he wanted us dead."

"That would be a good way to do it," Riku pointed out.

"He didn't say 'dead'," Steve reminded them. "He said 'extinct.'"

"He also said he killed somebody," Clint added.

"That's usually a good sign that the guy's got a screw or two loose," Donald said.

"But there wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria pointed out.

"Yes, there was," Tony announced in a grim voice.

He walked forwards and raised the remote. Pressing the button, the orange lights for Jarvis came up, but they were smashed to little pieces that were scattered all around. Everyone perked up at the sight of the lights. Bruce walked up to it with his jaw dropped.

"What?" he whispered. He shared a look with Tony and Vanitas before looking back down at the lights. "This is insane."

"Jarvis was the first line of defense," Steve said with crossed arms, looking down with his eyes closed. "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."

"Poor bastard," Vanitas said, despair in his voice.

"No," Bruce denied. "Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy. This is... rage."

"Mindless slaughter," Kairi commented, not bothering to hide the hate in her voice. "That prick..."

Everyone's attentions were drawn to loud footsteps, and they turned to see Thor in full armor stomping in carrying Mjölnir, Cloud right next to him. They walked right up to Tony and Thor grabbed the man by the throat, picking him up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Steve said.

"It's going around," Clint remarked.

"That didn't take long," Goofy commented.

"Come on, use your words, buddy," Tony choked out.

"No, I'd rather use this," Cloud admitted, pulling out his Buster sword and pointing raising it up towards Tony.

"Whoa!" Steve exclaimed in surprise, as he didn't see Cloud carrying the sword into the room with him. "Where did that come from?"

"Keybladers didn't invent summoning weapons out of thin air," Vanitas told him.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark," Thor told Tony.

"Thor," Steve said.

"The Legionnaire," Sora added. "Where is it?"

Thor dropped Tony with his feet and sighed out, turning towards the Captain.

"Trail went cold about 100 miles out, but it's headed north," he told them. With an accusing tone, he added, "And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"Genie's out of that bottle," Natasha commented. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"Uh, I get why Point Break's mad, but what's eating you, Strife?" Tony asked.

"I got here by accident," Cloud told him, sounding pissed. "I wanted to patch up and leave. I had no plans to get involved in whatever crazy shit your lives involve."

"That sounds just like me the first time we came to this world," Vanitas commented.

"Yeah, the resemblance is actually kinda scary," Sora agreed.

"I don't understand," Helen said, looking at the broken Iron Legion bot. She looked over at Tony. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

As she talked, Tony positioned himself in front of a computer, right next to Bruce and Vanitas. Then, to all their surprises, Tony started to laugh. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey wondered if the man had somehow gone crazy in the last four seconds, which was actually kind of a possibility.

"Mm-mmm," Bruce said to Tony, shaking his head.

' _He's finally lost it,_ ' Vanitas thought, which Bruce heard.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked.

Tony turned back to face Thor. "No. It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. Is it so..." He laughed out, "Is it so... It is. It's so terrible."

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand," Thor told him in a condescending manner.

"No," Tony said, walking up to Thor again. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time," Bruce commented.

"Really?" Tony asked with shock, turning towards the other scientist. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Bruce admitted.

"We didn't," Tony pointed out. "We weren't even close."

"He's right," Vanitas agreed. "Everything we did with the prick ended up failing."

"Yeah, were we even close to an interface?" Tony agreed, gesturing to his lab partners.

Bruce just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, you did something right," Steve remarked. "And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different from SHIELD."

"Yeah, creating this thing sounds just like that Project Insight," Sora pointed out. "And we all know how _that_ ended."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked.

"No, it's never come up," Rhodey said with sarcasm.

"Saved New York?" Tony added.

"Never heard that," Rhodey continued his sarcasm.

"Recall that?" Tony asked.

"How can I forget?" Vanitas asked with slight annoyance. "Once you got over your PTSD, you bragged about it literally every day at breakfast."

"Every day?" Mickey asked with a wince.

"A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space," Tony reminded them. "We're standing 300 feet below it."

"I still remember how shocked I was when the Leviathan came through," Sora muttered.

"We're the Avengers," Tony remarked. "We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there..." He pointed at the ceiling. "That's... That's the endgame. How are you guys planning on beating that?"

After a second, Steve answered, "Together."

"Like we always do," Mickey added.

Even Cloud looked like he agreed with them, while Tony looked unconvinced.

"We'll lose," Tony remarked.

"...Then we'll do that together, too," Steve told him.

Tony took in his words and looked out in thought.

"Thor's right," Steve announced. "Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us."

"We can really stick it to him when he's not ready," Sora added.

"Now that's smart logic," Kairi commented.

"The world's a big place," Steve continued. "Let's start making it smaller."

"Guys, don't blame Tony," Vanitas announced. He sighed out. "The Maximoff girl kinda psyched us out."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

Vanitas locked eyes with Tony, who sighed out and gave a nod.

"She showed us both a vision of all of us, pretty much defeated and dead," Vanitas answered. "Big guy and I were the only ones who survived, while the Chitari went on to ravage the Earth. We got so scared of the possibility of that actually happening that he figured we needed a definite way of protection against alien forces. That led to the rebirth of Ultron." *** _1_ ***

"So this all started because this enhanced individual messed with your heads?" Mickey asked.

Tony and Vanitas nodded.

"Man, those two must really hate us," Natasha commented.

"No, just Tony," Vanitas said, sensing why they did just that.

"What?" Tony asked. "What'd I do?"

"Remember how Hill said that it was a shell that destroyed their apartment building and orphaned them?" Vanitas asked. Tony nodded. "Well... who's name do you think was on the shell?"

Tony closed his eyes in realization and breathed out through his nose.

"Son of a bitch..." he said, despair in his voice.

"Man, the ignorance from your past is really coming back to kick you in the ass," Riku commented.

"You're telling me," Tony agreed.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Sokovia, said Enhanced were in town, with Pietro handing out various items in a bag he had "acquired" with his powers to the people around him.

"There you go," he said, passing better clothes to a woman and a man.

"Thank you," the woman said.

"Ah," Pietro said, picking up a pill bottle and passing it to an older man. "Those the right ones?"

The man studied the bottle and answered, "Yeah."

"The doctor who refilled it..." Pietro told him. "No more insurance hassle. I made a house call."

"How much?" a man asked as he turned towards the bag.

"Oh, no," Pietro assured him.

He then turned towards a girl about his age named Zrinka, who was smiling at him.

"This is for your brother," Pietro told her, holding up a small ball.

"Thank you," Zrinka said as he grabbed at something else.

"And this..." Pietro said, holding up a long pretty dress, a sly smile on his face. "Is not for your brother."

"Oh, no," Zrinka said, taking the dress in her hands as Pietro continued smiling at her. "This is too..."

"Is every girl in Sokovia getting a dress from Paris?" Wanda asked, walking past her brother and the girl. "At least Gertie's looked warm."

As Wanda walked away, Zrinka frowned in suspicion at Pietro.

"Uh... she's kidding," Pietro said, trying to save face. *** _2_ ***

But then he quickly ran after his sister... normally, not with speed.

"You're jealous you're not getting a dress," Pietro teased his sister.

"You keep stealing, you're going to get shot," Wanda reprimanded him. He scoffed, so she hit him in the back. "I mean it. At speed, nothing can touch you, but standing still..."

"Do you think I want to be?" Pietro asked, stopping and looking at his sister. "You said, 'Wait'. I'm waiting. I don't know for what. We had Stark helpless. All these years, and you..."

"Costel!" Zrinka called out, running towards her little brother, getting Wanda and Pietro's attention. "Costel, where did you go?"

"The church," Costel said, looking up at the twins. "The men say you need to come to the church."

"What men?" Wanda asked.

"The... Iron Man," Costel answered. "And the One Winged Angel."

Wanda and Pietro shared a confused look at the young boy's descriptions of both men. Nevertheless, they went across the small city and through the fence that poorly blocked off the mostly ruined church. Still suspicious, they walked through the ruined halls and demolished rooms until they reached the central area, where they found a large throne and a man sitting in it, facing away from them with a cape over his head and back.

"Talk, and if you are wasting our time..." Wanda started.

"Did you know this church is the exact center of the city?" Ultron interrupted, visibly confusing the twins. "The elders decreed it so that everyone could be equally close to God."

"Stuff of nonsense," Sephiroth commented above the twins, surprising them some more since they couldn't see him. "As if people like this could really be close to someone like him."

"I still like it," Ultron said as Wanda started walking around the room to try to see the man in the throne, seeing the metal arm and hand. "The geometry of belief."

"You're wondering why you can't look inside my head," Ultron assessed, placing his hand down.

"Sometimes, it's hard," Wanda told him with her eyes now red. "But sooner or later, every man shows himself."

Ultron stood right up, allowing the cape to fall off, revealing his very tall, cybernetic body to the twins. To add to their surprise, Sephiroth floated down, with his one wing moved in a position to help the float. The twins' jaws dropped and eyes widened as they witnessed the two in front of them.

"Oh, I'm sure they do," Ultron commented. "But you needed something more than a man. That's why you let Stark and Jordan take the scepter."

"Luckily for you, we are no mere men," Sephiroth said as they walked towards the two.

"I didn't expect, but I saw Stark and Jordan's fear," Wanda remarked. "I knew it would control them. Make them self destruct."

"Everyone creates the thing they dread," Ultron told them.

"The two of us are living examples of that," Sephiroth said with a smirk.

"Men of peace create engines of war," Ultron said as he and Sephiroth started walking around the center of the church, followed not that closely by the twins. "Invaders create Avengers." He gestured to Sephiroth. "Light creates darkness." He then gestured to the twins. "People create... smaller people? Uh..." He trailed off. "'Children!' (Laughs) I lost the word, there. Children, designed to supplant them, to help them end."

"Kind of a rude way to describe parenthood," Pietro muttered. *** _3_ ***

"Is that why you've come, to end the Avengers?" Wanda asked.

"I've come to save the world," Ultron told her.

"And I've come to return it to how it should be," Sephiroth added. "Luckily, our views turned out to be pretty similar in this situation."

"But also... yeah, we're here to end the Avengers," Ultron added.

"They aren't in the blueprint for how the world should be," Sephiroth said with a smirk.

Sephiroth and Ultron led the twins back to Strucker's castle, where they gathered in the room where they had built Ultron's new body, the same one that the deactivated Leviathan was. Where many other droids were at work constructing what was needed for the plan.

"We'll move out right away," Ultron announced, leading the way into the room and gesturing to what was in front of them. "This is a start, but there's something we need to begin the real work."

With wide eyes of uncertainty, Wanda asked, "All of these are..."

"Me," Ultron answered. "I have what the Avengers never will. Harmony."

He floated up with thrusters and pulled a chain, bringing a large device that was being constructed towards them.

"They're discordant," Ultron informed them. "Disconnected. Stark's already got them turning on each other. And when you get inside the rest of their heads..."

"Everyone's plan is not to kill them," Pietro announced.

"And make them martyrs?" Ultron asked, floating towards them. "You need patience. Need to see the big picture."

"I don't see the big picture," Pietro told him. "I have a little picture. I take it out and look at it, every day."

"You lost your parents in the bombings," Ultron said. "We've seen the records."

"The records are not the picture," Pietro told him.

"Pietro," Wanda started.

"No, please," Ultron requested.

"I told you there was probably another reason," Sephiroth told the cyborg.

The twins shared a look.

"We were 10 years old," Pietro said. "Having dinner, the four of us. When the first shell hits, two floors below, it makes a hole in the floor." He looks down and shakes his head with wide eyes as he remembered that day. "It's big... Our parents go in, and the whole building starts coming apart. I grab her, roll under the bed, and the second shell hits. But it doesn't go off. It just... sits there in the rubble. Three feet from our faces. And on the side of the shell is painted one word."

"'Stark'," Wanda said in a thick voice with her eyes now red.

"We were trapped for two days," Pietro added.

"Every effort to save us..." Wanda started. "Every shift in the bricks, I think, 'This will set it off.'" She looked at Ultron. "We wait for two days for Tony Stark to kill us."

"I know what they are," Pietro assured Ultron.

"...I wondered why only you two survived Strucker's experiments," Ultron admitted. "Now I don't. We will make it right." He looked at Pietro as he walked forwards. "You and I can hurt them." He looked at Wanda. "But you will tear them apart... from the inside. And Sephiroth can burn the remains to make sure they never come back."

"What's his reason?" Pietro asked as Wanda looked at the droid with surprise.

"They have someone I need," Sephiroth answered. "Someone they've brainwashed with their views. A man named Cloud Strife. And I would like him back. He is key to restoring this world and all the others to what they should be."

"Okay," Wanda said. "This Strife will be unharmed."

"I never said that he needed to be unharmed..." Sephiroth said with an evil smirk.

Things were escalating quickly. Just what Sephiroth wanted...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 It just wouldn't be V (now) if he didn't see this stuff and pass that information to his friends, you know?
> 
> *2 I really didn't find anything wrong with this version of Quicksilver. Hell, this scene made me laugh quite a bit. Something that's kinda messed up is that the actor's contract actually had him up for multiple movies, but then... well, you know. Maybe it's cause of what was happening with the character also being in the X Mens? 🤷♀️
> 
> *3 I added that. Rude, but true, according to my dad 😂
> 
> I'm adding a little extra reason why Sephiroth is doing this. It'll be revealed in time.
> 
> You know, watching this again now, I can't help but think of this SNL sketch that I saw between this and the last time I saw this movie. It was a parody trailer for a Black Widow movie back around the time of this movie, during an episode Scarlett Johansson hosted. Let's just say, it was... interesting. (Is that the right word? 😅 )


	5. Vibranium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group follows Ultron to Africa, where they face off against him and his allies...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Monday's aren't good for updating. And I did write a lot of this yesterday. But then I got distracted by the Halloween marathon I set up for myself. Oops 😅
> 
> 10/30/20: I added some more dialogue and bits from a deleted scene called "Watch Your Six." It wasn't a lot, but I enjoyed some of the banter among the group

By the next morning, the group in Avengers Tower had recuperated enough for their search all over for Ultron. Tony and Vanitas were searching on a computer with Bruce nearby at another computer. Bruce tapped the screen and started a playback of Ultron.

" _No, not yet_ ," Ultron's recorded voice said. " _Not this chrysalis..._ "

Bruce shook his head in thought as he took in the recorded words of the android.

"It can read vocal stress patterns, adrenaline spikes..." he started to say.

"None of that was in the schematic we launched," Tony interrupted.

"He had a self-constructed learning spiral," Bruce pointed out.

"So he could have figured out how to do all that shit on his own," Vanitas assessed. "We made our own Skynet. (mutters) Why do all computer UI's end up turning evil?"

"That was in his language database," Tony reminded them. "He was supposed to learn slang, not go insane."

"You're assuming it did," Bruce commented.

Tony walked away from the computer towards Bruce. "Look, we all know the guy has anger issues, which, not to point a finger..."

He started pointing at Bruce and Vanitas.

"Tough, but fair," Vanitas commented.

"We told him to solve the world," Bruce reminded Tony.

"Never would have thought this was his way of solving it," Vanitas muttered as he and Tony looked down in shame.

Meanwhile downstairs, Steve, Sora, and Cloud exited the elevator into the still cluttered living room with Maria, who was carrying a tablet again.

"They're all over the globe," Maria explained as they walked into the living room and towards the stairs to the upper levels. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."

"Here I thought I was done fighting psycho robots," Cloud commented as they started up the stairs.

"Fatalities?" Steve asked.

"Only when engaged," Maria said as they reached the mid tier of the staircase and towards the other stairs. "Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and 'something too fast to see'."

"The Maximoffs," Sora assessed.

"That makes sense he'd go to them," Steve admitted as they started up the next set of stairs. "They have someone in common."

"That guy I landed on," Cloud said in remembrance. "Stucker."

"Strucker," Sora corrected him.

"Not anymore," Maria said, turning on the tablet as they reached the top of the stairs.

She handed the tablet to Steve, and the three looked at the picture being presented to them. On the left side, they could see bits of Ultron's cybernetic body in a prison cell. On a bed was the deceased body of Baron Strucker. There was a wound on his chest over his heart, with blood splatter on the wall next to him. Next to the splatter was the word "Peace" written in what they guessed was his blood.

"Jesus," Sora said with a wide eyed frown.

"That's kind of a mixed message," Steve commented.

Cloud winced at the sight and walked away from them.

"Is it?" Maria asked. "If it was my mission, world peace, I'd probably take out Strucker, too. Ultron could be in any system. He could be pulling planes down from the sky. What if he's just doing what he's supposed to?"

"These kinds of guys always have hidden motives," Sora pointed out. "Remember how long Loki took to move into action?"

"Besides, if I thought Ultron were bringing peace, I'd hang up my shield," Steve told her, looking down at the tablet.

"Would you?" Maria countered.

Steve looked up at her and said nothing for a second.

"Let us know if he leaves anymore messages," Steve told her.

Tablet still in hand, he and Sora continued up the stairs, leaving a contemplative Maria behind.

Meanwhile, Cloud was soon drawn to the sound of Clint's slightly distant voice saying, "Don't worry about the wolf, leave the nightlight off. That's a negative. I answer to you."

Curious, Cloud went down the nearest hallway to find Clint staring off into the distance, talking on the phone. He said "Yes, ma'am," as Steve and Sora soon followed behind the blonde.

"I gotta go," Clint said before lowering his phone and turning towards them.

"Who was that?" Cloud asked, wondering why he was curious.

After a second, Clint answered, "Girlfriend."

Sora and Cloud shared looks of confusion, remembering from Vanitas that the man said he didn't have a girlfriend. They shrugged it off after a second.

"Any of your old contacts come through?" Steve asked.

"Still waiting," Clint admitted.

"Wait faster," Steve said, turning away from him.

Both Sora and Cloud were curious about the man's words. Clint sighed and started down the opposite hallway. Steve looked over his shoulder, curious about Clint, but shrugged it off and led Cloud and Sora to the room where Natasha, Vanitas, Tony, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, and Mickey were in. Natasha was currently in a video call with Rhodey.

"We're getting access denied on all basic information streams," Natasha told him before taking a sip of coffee.

"Yeah," Rhodey agreed. "Well, you guys are off the Pentagon's Christmas list."

"Because of one mistake?" Kairi asked.

"It's kind of a really big mistake, kid," Rhodey told her. "Every country with a nuke is fighting a cyber attack." Tony and Vanitas walked over. "War Machine is being deployed to the Middle East, in case certain people start blaming each other instead of you."

"Okay, well, hold that thought," Tony told his friend before holding up a small bit of internal plating. "Let me overnight you a new encryption drive for your suit in case Ultron wants in."

"Don't want that fucker getting his hands on what's yours," Vanitas commented.

"Got you," Rhodey said. "Thanks."

"You hear something, we need to hear it, too," Natasha told him.

"Hey, that goes both ways," Rhodey commented. "Watch your six."

"You, too," Natasha said, signing off.

Steve, Sora, and Cloud walked in and walked up to the small staircase to the slightly higher level as Thor walked towards them on the higher level.

"Any help from up high?" Sora asked.

"Heimdall's either away from his post or he's been ordered not to answer," Thor told them as he walked down the stairs.

"No offense, but your dad sounds like a real jerk of a king," Mickey commented.

"You have no idea," Vanitas informed his mouse friend.

"But don't worry, Ultron can't hide forever, we'll find him," Thor assured them as Bruce entered the lab behind Thor.

"Well, he's not exactly hiding," Steve commented, offering the tablet with the picture of Strucker to Thor.

"What's this?" Tony asked as Thor took the offered tablet from Steve and examined the picture.

"It's a message," Steve answered as Thor passed the tablet to Tony by smacking it into his stomach. "Ultron killed Strucker."

Tony grabbed the tablet and looked at the picture.

"Damn," Riku commented.

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us," Tony said.

"This is good," Natasha said as she and Bruce, who had walked over to join them, looked at the picture.

"No, it's not good," Bruce denied with a wide eyed shake of the head.

"He's showing us his hand," Natasha said. "This isn't his pattern, it's a smoke screen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

"There might've been an ulterior motive to it," Kairi suggested.

"Exactly," Steve agreed, crossing his arms. "Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."

"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha said. She tried to pull up a file, but instead got a notification that it had been deleted. "Yeah. Look, everything we had on Strucker's been erased."

"And that's good?" Bruce asked with sarcasm.

Vanitas and Tony glared at him for a second.

"Hey, is this why we never digitalized our files back home?" Goofy asked Mickey.

"Not everything," Steve told the group as Mickey shook his head.

So, they went to work going through all the paper files they had on Strucker, taking out the boxes and folders the files were all stashed in.

"I'm having bad flashbacks to that summer job we had working in your dad's offices," Sora complained.

"Oh, man, that was the most boring two months ever," Riku complained with his best friend.

"Oh, get over it," Kairi told her friends. "That was two years ago. And we managed to get good community service hours to get into high school."

"You know, I checked," Riku told her. "And we didn't actually need required hours for that."

"What!?" Sora asked, looking at Kairi in shock.

Kairi sighed out in defeat.

"All right, my dad made it clear I was gonna do the job that summer, and I didn't wanna suffer alone," she admitted. *** _1_ ***

"Bitch," Vanitas commented with a laugh.

"And I just went along with it," Sora said in realization. "Wait, how gullible am I?"

"Okay, we don't have time to get into _that_ , buddy," Vanitas told his doppelgänger, flipping through some files in a folder he was holding.

"Known associates," Tony commented, flipping through the files in his hand.

Steve set down another box of files and opened it, much to the surprise of Tony and Vanitas.

"Baron Strucker had a lot of friends," Steve informed them.

"Well, these people are all horrible," Bruce commented.

"Wait," Tony said, pointing to the open file Bruce was holding that had the SHIELD logo on the cover. "I know that guy."

Bruce handed Tony the file on Ulysses Klaue, and everyone's attention was drawn to the man as he held it up and studied it.

"From back in the day," Tony continued. "He operates off the African coast. Black market arms."

As he passed around the picture that was in the file, Steve shot him a reprimanding look.

"There are conventions," Tony told him. "All right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything."

"So fuck off, Rogers," Vanitas said, in defense of his old roommate.

"Ulysses Kla... Kla-wah?" Donald read to the best of his ability.

"It's pronounced like 'claw'," Tony helped him.

"Yet it's spelled pretty weirdly, Mickey commented.

"He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer," Tony explained as they all studied the picture. "It was all very Ahab."

"This?" Thor asked, gesturing to the picture of Klaue's neck from behind.

"Ah, it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it," Tony said.

"Man, those look weirder than the ones V had," Sora commented.

"Those are tattoos, this is a brand," Thor told them, pointing to the marks revealed along the man's body before pointing directly at the burned mark on the back of his neck.

"That oughta help us a bit," Goofy commented.

And it did. They took a picture of the mark and ran it through their online database, soon finding a match.

"Oh, yeah," Bruce informed them. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief.' In a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?" Steve asked.

"Wakanada," Bruce answered. He stammered a bit before he corrected himself, "Wakanda."

"I recognize it," Vanitas admitted. "It has hints of Xhosian in it."

"You speak Xhosian?" Bruce asked.

" _Ayinguwe wedwa oneengqondo, mfondini,_ " Vanitas said, expertly. *** _2_ ***

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Bruce commented as Steve and Tony shared a look.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony started to say in worry.

"I thought your father said he got the last of it," Steve said in remembrance.

"People are wrong all the time," Vanitas reminded him. "We set out to try to make a protection system for the Earth and instead accidentally created a sentient android intent on killing us."

"I don't follow," Bruce admitted as he walked over to the others. "What comes out of Wakanda?"

"The strongest metal on Earth," Tony answered as members of the group looked down at Steve's shield.

"Vibranium," Sora said for clarification.

"Shit," Cloud commented, sounding impressed.

"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked.

* * *

In a salvage yard on the African coast, various large ships were floating in the water aimlessly. Inside one of these ships, lots of African workers were, well, at work constructing various weapons and/or vehicles in a large room with lots of catwalks above them, where more people were at work. There was multiple small rooms with completed weapons around the top of the chamber, and Klaue stood in one, overlooking all his workers below him, surrounded by some of the aforementioned completed weapons.

"Don't tell me your men swindled you," Klaue said in his accented voice as he talked to the speakerphone. "I sent you six short-range heat-seekers and got a boat full of rusted parts." He turned away from the window and started walking to a desk. "Now, you will make it right, or the next missile I send you will come very much faster."

He pressed a button on his landline to change the call, while still talking through speakerphone.

"Now, minister, where were we?" Klaue asked.

But then the entire facility shut down, turning off all the machines, equipment the workers were using, and even the lights. The workers turned on their flashlights as they clamored in disbelief at what was happening.

Klaue had an emergency light on in his office, and he looked out the window to see everyone fighting for control. Rightfully suspicious, Klaue grabbed a Beretta handgun off of his desk and moved to the open, darkened, doorway. He fired off a shot, but then Pietro sped in and spun Klaue around. When Klaue could see again, he looked down at his desk to see his the pieces of his taken apart Beretta, and all the unfired bullets lined up in front of it.

Pietro sighed out and crossed his arms as Wanda stepped into the doorway with her hair tied back, and Klaue turned towards them.

"Yeah," Klaue said. "The Enhanced. Strucker's prize pupils."

He sat down with a smile on his face, then picked up a small bowl on his desk and lifted it up.

"Do you want a candy?" Klaue asked. "Hmm?" As he set the bowl back down, he said, "I was sorry to hear about Strucker. But then, he knew what kind of world he was helping create. Human life. Not a growth market."

Pietro looked down in wonder and shared a look with his sister.

"You didn't know?" Klaue asked. He winced. "Is this your first time intimidating someone? I'm afraid that... I'm not that afraid."

"Everybody is afraid of something," Wanda pointed out, stepping into the room.

"Cuttlefish," Klaue admitted. Wanda tilted her head in confusion. "Deep sea fish. They make lights, disco lights..." He then imitated a fish and waved his hand to act like one opening and closing its mouth. "...to hypnotize their prey, and then... Whoop!" He grabbed the air with his hand to emphasize the fish lunging to its prey. "I saw a documentary. It was terrifying."

Pietro then sped to the desk and returned to his position. Klaue looked in surprise at the blur the young man had been before watching him go back to where he was standing and unwrap a piece of candy and put it in his mouth. *** _3_ ***

"So if you're going to fiddle with my brain, and make me see a giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business," Klaue informed them. "And I know you're not in charge. And I only deal with the man in charge."

As he finished that little rant, Ultron and Sephiroth flew up behind the man through the window. Ultron crashed through the window and grabbed Klaue, throwing him out the door the twins had entered through. Klaue exclaimed as he hit the ground, while Ultron walked out of the door and stood over him.

"There is no man in charge," Ultron told him.

"Just one very pissed off android and an equally pissed off angel," Sephiroth said, looking down in annoyance at Klaue.

Ultron crouched down and got face to face with Klaue, saying, "Let's talk business."

When they told him their demands, Klaue led the group down to a different level, where he had one of his workers open up a doorway, revealing a bunch of barrels of toxic waste. But then that started sliding down, revealing lots of smaller canisters of vibranium in its liquid form. Klaue took one and started walking up to Ultron.

"Upon this rock, I will build my church," Ultron said. He took the canister and lifted it up to look at it. "Vibranium."

He tossed the canister to Pietro, who caught it with some surprise.

"You know, it came at great personal cost," Klaue informed him, rubbing his neck where the brand was. "It's worth billions."

Ultron chuckled and went into his own database, transferring said amount of money into an account specifically for Klaue while the Maximoffs watched in consideration.

"Now so are you," Ultron told Klaue.

Behind Klaue, his worker's phone started buzzing, so he took it out and observed it with Klaue.

"It's all under your dummy holdings," Ultron explained. "Finance is so weird."

"Your welcome," Sephiroth said impassively as Klaue examined the wire transfers on his worker's phone, giving them just above or just below a billion dollars at a time.

"But I always say, 'Keep your friends rich, and your enemies and wait to find out which is which'," Ultron told him.

Klaue and his worker looked up at Ultron.

"Stark," Klaue muttered as he looked down in realization.

"What?" Ultron asked.

"Tony Stark used to say that," Klaue said. He looked up at Klaue. "To me. You're one of his."

"What?" Ultron asked. "I'm not..."

He grabbed Klaue's left arm and held it up. Klaue's worker tried pulling out his handgun, but Wanda used her telekinesis to keep the gun pointed down, making the man exclaim in confusion.

"I'm not," Ultron growled at Klaue. "You think I'm one of Stark's puppets? His hollow men? I mean, look at me. Do I look like Iron Man? Stark is nothing!"

In a fit of rage during his last bit of words, Ultron chopped off Klaue's arm with his other hand, surprising the Maximoffs and said man as he backed up in shock towards a door behind him. Sephiroth laughed at the shocked expression on Klaue's face.

"I'm sorry," Ultron said, much calmer. "I'm s... Oh! I'm sure that's gonna be okay. I'm sorry. It's just that I don't understand. Don't compare me with Stark!"

He kicked Klaue in the head, making the man fall back behind the stairs, exclaiming in pain as his worried worker followed him.

"It's a thing with me," Ultron said. "Stark is... He's a sickness!"

"Ah, junior," Tony commented.

Ultron turned around to see Tony, Steve, Thor, Sora, Vanitas, Cloud, and Riku appear across the catwalk behind him, in full gear and with their weapons ready.

"You're gonna break your old man's heart," Tony said.

"If I have to," Ultron admitted as he, the Maximoffs, and Sephiroth turned towards the group.

Clint and Kairi made their way to the upper levels, with Clint carrying his bow and Kairi carrying Vanitas's infinite ammo sniper rifle. Natasha creeped around another part, followed by Mickey. Donald and Goofy stayed behind in the ship to keep Bruce company and watch over him.

"Then what're you gonna have left in terms of family?" Vanitas tried joking with the robot. "You already killed your brother."

"Nobody has to break anything," Thor announced in an attempt to relieve tension.

"If you really believe that, then you're dumber than I originally thought," Sephiroth insulted. "Which is really saying something."

"He's right," Ultron agreed. "Clearly you've never made an omelette."

"He beat me by one second," Tony admitted.

"I should have known you'd be here, Sephiroth," Cloud admitted, holding his Buster Sword.

"Cloud," Sephiroth greeted, holding up his Masamune sword. "You still don't understand the truth. You mustn't let go of your past, but must instead embrace it. That way, you'll find yourself the person you were always meant to be."

"Fuck off, man," Vanitas snapped, stepping in front of Cloud in a way to protect his friend. "He's already made it clear that he doesn't plan on staying with you, or that sword that's definitely overcompensating for something."

He chuckled underneath his helmet at the repeat of his old joke.

"Why is everyone beating me at doing that today?" Tony wondered aloud.

"Ah, yes. He's funny," Pietro said, slowly walking up next to Ultron. "Mr. Stark. It's what? Comfortable?" He stopped and looked down at the missiles below them. "Like old times?"

"This was never my life," Tony said.

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve said in an attempt to get the twins away from Ultron.

"Oh, we will," Wanda remarked.

"We know you've suffered," Steve told them.

"We know what happened to your parents," Sora said, trying to help his friend. "And yes, it's awful that that happened to you both."

"And I can honestly see why you'd want to blame Stark," Riku admitted.

"Hey!" Tony said with slight offense.

"But it isn't right," Sora added. "You can't just blame him because his name was on the..."

"Do not talk about what happened," Pietro snapped at Sora. "You have no idea."

Ultron scoffed in annoyance at Steve and Sora.

"Captain America and Sora Derrik," Ultron said. (Tony frowned to himself and mouthed "Derrik?" in confusion.) "God's righteous man and the Keyblade's simple chosen wielder. One pretending he could live without a war, and the other really believing his friends are his power. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..."

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," Thor told Ultron.

"I think you're confusing 'peace' with 'quiet'," Ultron rebutted.

"Just like Sephiroth's confusing 'long sword to make up for small dick' with 'badass'," Vanitas countered.

"I'm going to kill you first," Sephiroth growled at Vanitas.

"If I had a quarter for every time someone said that to me," Vanitas commented.

"Uh-huh," Tony said, trying to change the subject. "What's the vibranium for?"

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan," Ultron told them with sarcasm, raising one hand.

"Hey, sarcasm's my thing, Robert California!" Vanitas snapped. "Your thing is somehow talking Jo Bennet into giving you her job!" After a second, his anger faded to curiosity. "...Seriously, how'd you do that?" *** _4_ ***

Ultron said nothing and activated a magnet in his raised hand, pulling Tony forwards. Ultron bots appeared around the others while Ultron blasted Tony back with lasers, knocking him into a metal wall. Tony quickly recovered, and he and Ultron flew at each other, engaging in battle. As Ultron knocked Tony into a wall, threw a piece of another wall at him, then blasted him with lasers, the others fought off the bots, and Cloud and Sephiroth lunged at each other.

The two met each other in the air and swung their swords, with each of their attacks intercepting each other. Sora jumped up and used combo attacks against Sephiroth from the other side, while Vanitas blasted a micro Uzi from below, careful to only hit the silver haired man. Steve was struggling against the bot he was fighting, while Thor and Riku managed to knock the ones they were fighting to the ground. Riku was about to move to help Steve, but then Pietro sped in and hit both him and Thor.

In the end, Steve didn't need help, and ended up kicking the robot he was fighting away. He charged towards Wanda, who used her telekinesis to knock him back. Vanitas straightened back up and looked towards Wanda, freezing.

"Elizabeth Olsen!" he whispered, starstruck. But then he closed his eyes and shook his head. He muttered, "Not her, not her, not her..."

His attention was then drawn to the sound of an accented male voice yelling, "ALL OF THEM!"

Klaue's men then started moving through the walkways trying to get closer to the group. Vanitas briefly fired his Uzi at the ones he could see before resuming to fire at Sephiroth above him. Elsewhere, Natasha and Mickey actually made quick work of the men, Natasha using her training and the electric prods on her wrists and ankles, and Mickey with his Keyblade and small stature giving him an advantage.

On another part, Clint and Kairi even got to put their weapons to use, shooting down soldiers as they moved towards the main hall. Non lethal shots, of course, though.

"This rifle has one hell of a kickback," Kairi commented, rubbing her shoulder that was in pain.

"Yeah, that's sort of why I prefer the bow," Clint admitted, sending another arrow into another soldier's leg.

Ultron and Tony kept flying around the vast room they were in, with Ultron blasting lasers at Tony again before Tony tackled him in flight.

Cloud and Sephiroth had landed on the ground, and Cloud jabbed Sephiroth right through the stomach with his Buster Sword. Sephiroth exclaimed in pain before disappearing.

"Where'd he go?" Sora asked.

"Right here," Sephiroth's voice answered.

Sora and Cloud looked around, and their eyes widened at the sight of six Sephiroth's floating above them, all holding Masamunes in their hands.

"They're... just illusions," Sora said with a little bit of fear. "So they shouldn't be able to hurt us, right?"

"You'd be surprised," Vanitas commented, landing next to his friends while remembering all the foes they had faced at Castle Oblivion.

He raised his Uzi and fired as the Sephiroths closed in.

On the other side of the walkway, Thor had jumped up into the air and was preparing to choke slam a bot to the ground while Steve crouched down and threw his shield at the bot he was fighting, and Riku kicked the one he was fighting away before raising his Keyblade. Pietro then sped under them, ducking under the shield and another bot's laser blast, going right to Steve and hitting him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Thor soon landed and threw Mjölnir towards Pietro, who side stepped and went fast as the hammer passed in front of him.

"Oh," he said, interested.

Pietro grabbed Mjölnir by the handle, then exclaimed as the hammer flew right into the ground and sent him down the railing, right down to the ground below them.

"Don't take it so hard," Riku tried consoling Pietro as he groaned in pain. "None of us could lift it, either."

He then exclaimed as he ducked a sword slash from one of the Sephiroths.

Tony and Ultron kept flying around the room and blasting at each other before Ultron blasted a hole in the ceiling, flying out while being followed by Tony.

Cloud, Riku, and Sora kept intercepting the sword slashes from the Sephiroth illusions, while Vanitas backflipped to dodge slashes from the one he was facing while reloading his Uzi. Once he managed to get a new magazine in his gun, he landed and fired at the illusions one handed, taking them all out.

"I really could have used you and that gun when I was in Midgar," Cloud commented. "Probably could have saved a couple of dozen buildings."

"Well, what are you gonna do?" Vanitas asked.

"You can mind your own damn business," Sephiroth's voice announced.

The One Winged Angel appeared in front of Vanitas and slashed at him with the Masamune, knocking him back with an exclaim. Sora swung his Keyblade at Sephiroth, who simply deflected it with his sword before making blue orbs of darkness appear around the brunette. He attempted to use Reflega to block, but the orbs were quicker and zipped towards Sora, exploding and knocking him back. Vanitas stood back up and raised his Uzi, but the bullets had no affect. Sephiroth grabbed Vanitas and threw him up in the air, jumping up after him.

Vanitas turned in the air and tried to kick Sephiroth in the face, but Sephiroth dodged it and slashed the Masamune once again, sending Vanitas onto one of the upper balconies and making his helmet disappear. Riku and Cloud jumped after Sephiroth, attacking with both their blades. Sephiroth intercepted them easily, and kicked Riku away, focusing entirely on Cloud.

"Feed into your darkness," Sephiroth urged with a malicious smile. "You must come to accept that darkness is the only way. It is who you are meant to be, Cloud!"

Cloud breathed out in determination before snapping, "Fuck you!"

He slashed Sephiroth's sword to the side and knocked him away with his Buster Sword, lunging after him as he fell.

On the other side of the walkway, the cyborg Steve was fighting had grabbed his shield and lunged towards him, wielding it. Steve jumped out of the way and stood behind the railing, grabbing his shield and holding it up to the cyborg's neck to restrain it. Thor used Mjölnir to knock off the cyborg's head before moving on. Steve threw his shield to knock back three of Klaue's men before catching it and dropping down to the lower levels.

Steve and Riku landed together in the lower level, Riku much less gracefully, and Steve used his shield to knock the slowly recovering Pietro back into the boxes.

"Stay down, kid," Steve suggested.

"Seriously, you might wanna consider listening," Riku suggested before he and Steve moved on to fight the upcoming soldiers.

"It's time for some mind games," an Ultron bot informed Wanda.

So, she went to work.

* * *

Back on the Quinjet, Bruce, Donald, and Goofy could briefly hear the sound of gunfire coming from the central device of the transmitters.

"That's never a good sign," Donald commented.

"Guys?" Bruce tried asking. "Guys, is this a code green?"

All they got in response was static.

"They should be okay, right?" Goofy asked. "Sora and Riku are Keyblade wielders, and Vanitas and King Mickey are Masters. Combine that with the entirety of the team, they can handle it... I think."

Bruce walked towards the back of the ship and opened up the doorway as the gunfire continued. He, Donald, and Goofy stared out towards the ship, worried for their friends...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 Kairi's adopted father on Destiny Islands is the mayor, so I figure he'd be that father that tried to get his daughter interested in the family business with stuff like that
> 
> *2 I did my best with Google Translate to try to get "You're not the only one with brains, dude" Plus, this isn't a surprise. He mentioned being able to speak Xhosian in the Captain Marvel story, and did it a bit way back in the Birth By Sleep story, calling Gantu fat. I think
> 
> *3 My man. 😂
> 
> *4 Yes, that's a reference to The Office. James Spader, the guy who plays Ultron, did play Robert California in season 8
> 
> I did actually consider waiting a bit to include Riku, Mickey, and Kairi in the action. But then I changed my mind when I realized that there's no way they would just sit out until the final act to start fighting against Ultron and Sephiroth with the others.


	6. The Big One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the battle keeps going, Wanda soon makes short work of the team with her powers. Which leads to her messing with Bruce. That one has REALLY bad repercussions...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did consider waiting to separate the chapters until Wanda said the line, "I want the big one..." But then I realized the last chapter was running a little long, so I cut the work that I had done after what I decided would be a good stopping point, then pasted it at the beginning here
> 
> Also, I forgot to include one deleted scene with the heroes at the beginning of the last chapter. I'll fix that later

Back on the boat, Thor walked down a walkway towards where he thought more enemies could be, soon encountering Wanda. She sent red energy into his head, surprising him a bit, but he recovered in seconds, just in time for her to escape.

"Thor, status," Steve requested.

"You alright, man?" Riku asked as he and Steve saw the blonde just standing in place.

"The girl tried to warp my mind," Thor said, walking down a hall and throwing a soldier to the ground. "Take special care. I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty."

He quickly realized just how wrong he was when he walked down a hall and found himself in a large room in Asgard, with many people celebrating around him. Thor started to sweat as he could quickly figure out something was wrong.

Steve and Riku fought off soldiers with their weapons, knocking them aside easily. But then Pietro sped at them, quickly knocking the both of them into a wall next to a staircase, hurting them enough to stun them.

"Fuck, that guy packs a punch," Riku commented, rubbing his head in pain.

To make matters worse, Wanda was on the staircase next to them, and she sent red energy into both their heads. The twins escaped, with Wanda stopping by Natasha and Mickey to send red energy into their heads, after great surprise at the sight of Mickey Mouse in front of her. *** _1_ ***

Meanwhile, Sora had recovered enough to resume helping Cloud fight with Sephiroth. Sora had done two combos in a row, one on the ground and one in the air, but Sephiroth looked undeterred. He teleported behind Sora and slashed with his sword, knocking the brunette back before teleporting and attacking a couple of more times, doing significant damage to Sora. Sephiroth then easily blocked a sword strike from Cloud, who had tried lunging from above. Sephiroth easily side stepped a vertical slash from Cloud's Buster Sword, then grabbed the blonde by the neck with his free hand. He choked Cloud for a second before throwing him across the room, right into a wall so hard it left an imprint before Cloud fell to the ground.

Wanda then appeared over Cloud's wounded body and sent red energy into his head, making him exclaim and wince.

"That should help him see things your way, right?" Wanda asked Sephiroth.

"Huh," Sephiroth said in realization. "I never thought of doing that. Thank you, Ms Maximoff."

They both moved on to find their next targets.

Vanitas exclaimed in pain as he slowly recovered from the last attack from Sephiroth. He stretched his arms to try to recover a bit, and to his dismay, discovered that his black robes had been torn.

"I made it bullet proof, fire proof, knife proof, and even darkness proof," Vanitas sighed out in dismay, taking off the shreds of his sleeves. "Should have added lightsabers, lasers, and compensating swords."

He stood up and looked over the railing next to him, seeing his friends not doing so well after the last attack. But then Vanitas froze as he sensed a presence getting closer behind him. He turned around and found himself face to face with a surprised Wanda.

"Aw, man..." Vanitas whined. "I really don't wanna have to do this!"

Wanda looked confused.

"You look exactly like an actress on my Earth named Elizabeth Olsen," Vanitas started explaining. "And I had the biggest crush on her when I was a kid, and since you look just like her..."

He trailed off as Wanda's expression just looked more confused.

"You don't care," Vanitas simply said with a small nod of the head.

Wanda raised her hand to release the red energy, and Vanitas raised his hand in retaliation. With the help of Vanitas's telekinesis flaring, he was able to restrain the energy into a small red sphere in front of both of their hands. The two telekinetics looked at the energy surging in front of them in confusion before looking up at each other, still confused. Vanitas then started tilting his head with wide eyes and a blank face, trying to look intimidating. That just made Wanda look even more confused.

"I don't know," Vanitas admitted with a shake of his head, his face back to normal.

After a few more seconds, the energy soon exploded, sending Wanda back down the hallway she came from, and Vanitas over the railing and back onto the walkway they had been fighting Sephiroth and the robots on. Vanitas exclaimed in pain as he stood up, popping his arm back into place. He sensed that across the atrium, the Ultron bots were grabbing the remaining vials of vibranium from the safe, and got ready to go after them.

But then he stopped as he sensed another presence approaching fast. _Too_ fast. Following his instincts, Vanitas waited until he felt was the best possible moment, then stepped out of the way and held his arm up. Pietro sped face first right into Vanitas's raised arm, flipping and landing on his back. Pietro sat up and looked at Vanitas, surprise on his face.

"Your hot sister isn't the only one with telepathy," Vanitas informed him, holding out his arms on either side to emphasize his point.

Pietro sped up again, standing up and lunging at Vanitas with a punch. But with his powers acting up again, Vanitas caught Pietro's blurred fist. Once again surprised, Pietro tried punching with his other fist blurred, but Vanitas caught that one, too. Running low on options, Pietro head butted the shorter man, causing them both to exclaim in pain.

"No one wins with a head-butt, dude," Vanitas informed him, holding his forehead.

"Noted," Pietro said, also holding his forehead.

The two recovered and Pietro tried punching Vanitas again, but once again, Vanitas caught it. He elbowed Pietro in the head, then followed it up with a side kick to the Sokovian's stomach. Pietro exclaimed as he fell back, but quickly recovered again. He stood up and faced Vanitas again, who had his fists raised in a fighting stance.

"Bring it on, motherfucker!" Vanitas exclaimed.

But then he was tackled aside by Sephiroth, causing both of them to fall to the lower level.

"Could have used him after the head-butt," Pietro commented, rubbing his still bruised forehead.

Vanitas landed on the ground with a grunt of pain, rolling off of his back and into his feet, quickly pulling out his machete.

"You mess with my friends, you mess with me," he told Sephiroth, mentally preparing himself. "And Cloud and Sora are friends whose companies I enjoy. This is for them."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Sephiroth asked, annoyance evident in his voice.

"Not really," Vanitas admitted with a smirk.

He charged at Sephiroth, swinging with his machete, which ended up not being the best idea. Sephiroth disappeared once Vanitas got close and reappeared behind him, slashing with his Masamune sword, knocking back Vanitas. He teleported behind Vanitas again and slashed, doing this a couple of times and causing significant damage to the ravenette. Vanitas landed on the ground hard and quickly downed a Hi-Potion. Just as it finished healing him, the blue orbs of darkness surrounded him, and he had to start backflipping to dodge.

Once the orbs disappeared, Sephiroth raised an arm and made pillars of fire rise up towards the ceiling. Vanitas exclaimed as the pull from Sephiroth started dragging him towards the pillars of fire, which he knew he shouldn't let touch him since it was fire of darkness. Once the fire disappeared, Sephiroth disappeared and reappeared across the atrium, floating up in the air while covered in energy.

"Descend... Heartless Angel," Sephiroth chanted, gesturing to Vanitas.

Vanitas tried firing his reloaded Uzi at Sephiroth to stop the attack, but it had no effect. A while halo then appeared above Vanitas, and a large blast burst, sending him flying back into a wall.

"I'm now really glad I was out of it during that fight," Vanitas croaked out.

Meanwhile, Clint and Kairi kept firing at the soldiers from their perch above everybody, when Wanda started to sneak up behind them. She was about to send energy into Clint's head, but then he spun around quickly and jabbed an arrow with an electric attachment to her forehead, electrocuting and stunning her.

"I've done the whole mind control thing," Clint told her. "Not a fan."

"Bitch," Kairi snapped at Wanda as Clint started to reach for the arrow.

But then Pietro appeared and knocked them both through a window of a nearby office. Clint winced as he watched Pietro take the arrow off of his sister's forehead, gather her in his arms, then speed away.

"Yeah, you better run," Clint taunted.

"You know he can't hear us, right?" Kairi asked, remembering how Sora could never tell that.

"Whoever's standing, we got to move!" Clint announced into the transmitter. "Guys?"

Nearly half of the team was up and stumbling around as the effects of Wanda's magic took hold of them. They all had their own vision experiences from Wanda's magic...

* * *

_Natasha stumbled down a staircase, finding herself in a large, ornate living room. She walked down a hallway, watching through a glass wall as many young girls danced ballet, and a Russian instructor demanded, "Again."_

_"You'll break them," Natasha told her old instructor, Madame B._

_"Only the breakable ones," Madame B countered. "You're made of marble. We'll celebrate after the graduation ceremony."  
_

_Natasha briefly saw herself strapped down to a table as doctors went to work with scalpels, doing_ something _to her._

_"What if I fail?" Natasha asked, seeing herself younger and firing a handgun at a target with one hand. Before then tossing the gun up into the air and firing it at that same target with the other hand._

_She kept switching hands to fire the gun, but then the target switched to a man with a sack over his head. Natasha raised the handgun._

_"You never fail," Madame B told her._

_Natasha fired the handgun._

_It then shifted to her in hand to hand combat with two male trainers, near a table with all kinds of guns on top. Natasha knocked one man away before getting caught in a headlock by the other. After struggling, she pat him on the arm, and he released her._

_"Sloppy," Madame B insulted. "Pretending to fail."_

_Natasha panted in exhaustion as she stared forwards with an expression of worry._

_"The ceremony is necessary for you to take your place in the world," Madame B told Natasha as she saw bits of the facility she was training in._

_"I have no place in the world," Natasha countered, tears in her eyes._

_"Exactly," Madame B agreed._

_Natasha was set down on a stretcher and wheeled down a medical wing, a worried expression on her face._

* * *

_Mickey stumbled down a hallway, and found himself back in the realm of darkness, wearing his chest plate of armor and set of shorts from his last journey down here. All of a sudden, the Demon Tower reappeared in front of him, so he summoned his Keyblade, the Star Seeker._

_"Mickey..." A female voice called out._

_Mickey looked around in confusion, but quickly jumped back as the Demon Tower charged at him. He lunged towards the Tower and slashed it three times with the Star Seeker, going right through it. When he landed, Mickey found himself on the beach of Destiny Islands, in the form it was in when it was in the dark realm._

_Mickey ran down the beach and jumped off of the main island, landing on the large plain that he and Aqua had fought the Demon Tide together._

_"Aqua!" Mickey called out. "Aqua, where are you? We can escape with Vanitas's help! Aqua!"_

_Instead of getting an answer, Mickey was surprised when the Demon Tide burst out of the sand, making the sky around them go red like it had done before. Mickey summoned his Star Seeker once again and stood ready._

_"Mickey..." Aqua's voice said from behind him._

_Mickey turned around and barely had time to raise his Keyblade in defense as Aqua lunged at him, slashing with Master's Defender. Mickey's jaw dropped at the sight of Aqua. There were scratches along the exposed bits of her arms and legs, her stockings had holes in them from additional scratches and burn marks, one of the pink straps across her chest was broken and dangling, and one of the blue wraps of cloth that dangled next to her legs was burned down to almost nothing._

_But the biggest surprise to Mickey was that her eyes had gone yellow, almost like Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas's eyes._

_"Aqua!" Mickey exclaimed, wincing as he defended from her attack. "What's wrong?"_

_"You abandoned me," Aqua snapped in accusation. "You left me down here, with these!"_

_She lunged up over Mickey and landed under the Demon Tide as it flew in circles in the air._

_Mickey watched in horror as Aqua and the Demon Tide charged at him in tandem. He intercepted a slash of Aqua's Keyblade with a slash of his own before slashing at the charging Demon Tide, knocking it away. He backflipped away, but then got blasted by a large chunk of ice, making him fall to the ground. Mickey exclaimed as he raised his Keyblade in defense, blocking a downwards strike from Aqua._

_"This is your fault, Mickey..." Aqua muttered, anger and hatred in her voice. "This is your fault!"_

_Mickey yelled out in fear as he kept his Keyblade raised to defend against Aqua..._ *** _2_ ***

* * *

_Steve stumbled around without his mask and found himself in an older style party room, dressed in a suit similar to that of a WWII veteran. He looked around, confused, as people danced around to swing music playing from the band. Steve walked further into the club, watching as young men and women danced together, wincing as people taking their pictures got a snap of him, and seeing two boys get into a fight, smiles on their faces._

_Steve kept looking around the room in bewildered confusion, not noticing Peggy Carter in a blue dress come up behind him._

_"Are you ready for our dance?" Peggy asked, getting Steve's attention by grabbing his arm._

_Steve turned around and looked at her with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. He turned around and watched as people kept dancing, with some of the guys lifting the girls up onto their shoulders._

_"The war is over, Steve," Peggy told him, getting his attention again. "We can go home. Imagine it."_

_Steve turned away from her again, finding himself alone in the large room, still set up for a party with all the chairs, tables, and banners. He briefly saw images of himself dancing with Peggy, and sighed out in sadness as he knew they wouldn't be a reality._

* * *

_Riku exclaimed as he walked into the old main room of Hollow Bastion, finding himself in front of the entrance hall once more. Riku panted in and out as he looked from the fountain in front of him, to the younger version of himself battling Sora and Vanitas._

_"Sora!" Riku called out. "V!"_

_"They can't hear you," a familiar male voice told him._

_Riku looked behind him to now find himself in the room with the Keyhole, Ansem standing between him and the large golden frame of the Heartless insignia shaped entrance._

_"You," Riku breathed out. "I should have known you'd be the one to haunt my nightmares."_

_"Like I said, you will never be rid of me," Ansem told Riku. "If only you had learned your lesson the first time, then we wouldn't have to prolong this madness... No matter. I'll just have to incorporate this lesson into you again!"_

_Ansem yelled out as he released energy, making his shadow minion appear behind him again. Riku summoned his Keyblade, but the shadow minion was too fast and grabbed him with its massive fists, picking him up and making him drop his Keyblade._

_"Once you're my pawn again, then the first thing I'm gonna do is send you against your friends all over again," Ansem said with a sadistic smirk._

_"No," Riku denied, trying to summon his Keyblade again. "No..."_

_Darkness appeared in Ansem's hand, and he pressed it into Riku's chest, sending it into the silver haired boy's torso. Riku yelled out as he felt the familiar, unwelcome power surge through him._

* * *

_Thor walked around the room with pillars, where Asgardians were partying all around. He narrowed his eyes at one robed figure who had a bubbling sound coming from it._

_"Is it him?" Thor's attention was drawn to the sound of Heimdall's voice. The man set down a mug of drink and started making his way towards the blonde. "Is that the first son of Odin?"_

_"Heimdall, your eyes," Thor said, seeing that his friend's eyes were glazed over with white, rather than their usual orange._

_"Oh," Heimdall said with a smile, grabbing the sides of Thor's head. "They see everything. They see you leading us to Hel. Wake up!"_

_Heimdall then started choking Thor, who exclaimed as he tried to get back his breath._

_"I can still save you!" Thor insisted, trying to take Heimdall's hands off of his neck._

_"We're all dead!" Heimdall snapped. "Can you not see?"_

_Thor finally managed to push Heimdall of of him, but then electricity surged all around him, to his confusion._

_"You're a destroyer, Odinson," Heimdall snapped at him.  
_

_Thor exclaimed as the electricity surged out of him, blasting into one party-goer and incinerating them._

_"See where your power leads," Heimdall told Thor._

_Thor exclaimed as the electricity continued surging around him, but allowed him to then see four different colored gems, and eyes opening on a red face._

* * *

_Cloud exclaimed as he fell onto a sandy ground. He exclaimed as he sat up, finding himself once again in Olympus Coliseum, in the area that served as a front yard in front of the vestibule._

_"Cloud Strife!" a familiar voice called out._

_Cloud stood and turned towards the sound of the voice, feeling his heart skip a beat. Walking right towards him was a boy his age with spiky black hair that flowed back from his face. He wore a black tunic, blue pants, and brown and black boots, and carried a Buster Sword that was plain, having no bandages along the blade, as opposed to Cloud's that was lined with bandages. It had been years since the two had last seen each other, but Cloud recognized the long black hair and familiar blue eyes._

_"Zack!" Cloud said in relief, not noticing the angry expression on his friend's face. "Oh, man, it has been too long..."_

_But then Zack got close and raised his sword. In a split second, Cloud raised his own sword in defense, successfully managing to block his friend's strike._

_"Zack, what's gotten into you?" Cloud asked, not understanding._

_"I know about Sephiroth," Zack snapped, holding his sword with both hands. "I know you're the reason he's around, and what you did to bring him into existence. What the hell made you think I wanted to do all_ that _to find me!?"_

_"You took too long coming home, so I came to find you," Cloud exclaimed as the sky became dark above them. "I know what I did was wrong, and I won't excuse what I did. Please, you have to understand that I'm trying to get rid of Sephiroth! You're my friend, and whatever he did to you..."_

_"You're not my friend!" Zack snapped, stepping closer to the blonde, forcing his sword further in. "Not anymore!"_

_Cloud exclaimed, finding himself close to tears by his old friend's words._

_During the exchange, dark clouds grew high in the air, which soon sent down purple lightning right next to the bickering duo, causing a big explosion that knocked them aside. When Cloud could see again, there was a giant pit right in the middle of the field that led deep down into purple and red flames._

_And Zack was dangling onto shards of glass made from the explosion, exclaiming as he did his best not to fall. But within moments, his grip failed him and he started to fall._

_But Cloud lunged towards his friend and caught his hand with one of his. He exclaimed as he struggled to lift Zack up._

_"You gotta help me here, man," Cloud told Zack. "Otherwise you're gonna fall."_

_"Sorry, Cloud," Zack said, not sounding sorry at all. "But I'd rather face death than be stuck in a world with_ you _."_

_And with that, Zack let go of Cloud's hand, willfully falling towards the flames with a look of defeat on his face._

_"ZACK!!!" Cloud bellowed, reaching for his friend..._

* * *

In the real world, Wanda breathed in and out, recovering from the attack from Clint as Pietro set her down onto her feet outside of the boat.

"What can I do?" Pietro asked, worried for his sister.

"It hurts," Wanda admitted, wincing with her eyes closed.

"I'm going to kill him," Pietro announced. "I'll be right back."

He started to stand up to leave.

"No," Wanda told him, stopping him. "I'm all right. I want..." She looked to her left to see some trees in the distance, right where the Quinjet was docked with Bruce, Donald, and Goofy walking out. "I want to finish the plan. I want the big one."

Pietro followed her gaze to where the Quinjet and the three were. Said three shared expressions of worry as they noticed the two they couldn't make out looking at them.

Back in the ship, Sephiroth looked around to see that most of the Avengers were pretty much out of it, with the only ones still capable of fighting being Sora, Clint, and Kairi. Now would be a perfect moment to go to Cloud, but he could sense that what his blonde counterpart was seeing wasn't enough to trigger darkness in his heart. Darkness that he needed.

Sephiroth gripped his chest as he felt the unfamiliar sensation of pain flare up. He needed more of Cloud's darkness to sustain himself, and that wouldn't work unless he got the blonde _really_ angry. Maybe...

But then Sephiroth exclaimed as he felt Vanitas's machete go right through his back and come out the front of his chest. He yelled out in pain and disappeared from sight, not even leaving behind any illusions to battle the others for him.

"V!" Sora called out.

Vanitas looked up just in time to see his brunette doppelgänger land right next to him. Concerned over Vanitas's state, Sora handed him an Elixer, which he readily gulped down.

"Did you see that expression on his face before you stabbed him?" Sora asked.

"Yeah," Vanitas said.

"Why was it so familiar?" Sora asked. "It was like I've seen it before."

"You have," Vanitas said, feeling his wounds heal themselves. "Back when my will was failing to keep me alive, and starting to just let me die. It was how I looked whenever I felt pain or heavy exhaustion."

"Oh, yeah," Sora said in remembrance. "But... he's insanely powerful. What could be happening to make him feel something like that?"

"I don't know," Vanitas admitted. "But whatever it is..." Vanitas looked up onto the catwalk where Cloud was shaking, still in the midst of the vision Wanda had made him see. "Maybe there's another reason he's so obsessed with having Cloud give into the darkness."

Vanitas then exclaimed as he saw a small vision, this one of Tony still battling Ultron over the shipyard, with both parties blasting at each other with lots of options from each of their arsenals.

"Tony's still fighting his robo-son," Vanitas said, readjusting his robes one more time. "I'm gonna go help him."

"Okay," Sora said. "I'll help Barton and Kairi get everyone back to the Quinjet."

"Good luck," Vanitas said.

"You, too," Sora said.

Vanitas re-summoned his gauntlets and boots and flew up into the air... then crashed into the ceiling of the giant room and fell back to the floor, landing hard in a bunch of boxes. Sora winced as Vanitas pushed through the boxes and got back up onto his feet.

"That is not the hole Ultron had made before," Vanitas said, woozily.

Sora handed Vanitas another Elixer, which he gulped down just as quickly as the first. Once he finished healing, Vanitas flew back up into the air and out of the hole in the roof. He flew through the air, following the landmarks he had seen in his visions to where Tony and Ultron had gone. He found them on the ground, Ultron broken against a large piece of boat, with Tony pointing his own gauntlet at the android. Vanitas lessoned his own thrusters and landed next to Tony.

"Aw, man, I missed the action!" Vanitas whined.

"Uh, the vibranium is getting away," Ultron informed them.

Tony lowered his hand and had a blaster extend out of his wrist.

"And you're not going anywhere," he told Ultron.

"Of course not," Ultron agreed. "I'm already there." Vanitas frowned at the android's words. "You'll catch on. But first, you might need to catch Dr. Banner."

"Fuck you," Vanitas told the robot as Tony fired a missile, blowing up the metal body.

The two of them then engaged their thrusters again and flew up into the air. Vanitas sensed Hulk leaving the forest, yelling out as he lunged towards a nearby city.

"Oh, that's not good," Vanitas commented.

"News or footage," Tony requested his suit. "Keyword, 'Hulk'."

Within seconds, multiple tabs appeared in front of his face, all of them showing Hulk in that nearby city, causing mayhem.

"Like I said, not good," Vanitas said.

"Natasha, we could really use a lullaby," Tony said into the transmitter.

" _That's not gonna happen_ ," Clint informed them. " _Not for a while_."

" _The whole team is down_ ," Kairi added. " _They're in some kinds of trances_."

" _Sorry to say, but you guys're on your own_ ," Sora said, sounding upset.

"...I'm calling in Veronica," Tony announced after a second.

"Not gonna lie, I've always wanted to see her in action," Vanitas admitted as they flew towards the city.

Gears started flying out of the satellite up in space, right down towards the Earth. Some of them flew towards Tony, while others flew to the Hulk. Hulk had caused lots of mayhem, destroyed lots of cars and injured many people. Just as he started charging towards a group of police firing assault rifles at him, large pieces of metal landed around Hulk, forming a cage that tried stunning him with electrocution.

The police started to step closer and closer to the cage with their assault rifles raised in preparation. That ended up being a mistake when the ground started to shake, causing the cage to collapse into the broken ground. Hulk had figured out he couldn't break through the cage, so he burrowed through the ground below him, coming out into a street. He roared out as he started smashing a car with a screaming woman inside, and the police officers fired their rifles to try to stop him.

Hulk roared at them, but his attention was soon drawn to the sound of something big and heavy landing on the ground behind him. He turned to see Tony in his suit, receiving the last parts of the Hulk Buster suit, which gave him enough gears to the point he was as tall and as buff as Hulk.

"It's as awesome as I was hoping!" Vanitas cheered with enthusiasm as he landed next to Tony, helmet on his head.

"All right, everybody, stand down!" Tony announced.

Some people ran away, while some stood frozen and watched the exchange. All the while, the mechanic for Veronica floated up in the air above Tony, prepared to assist in any way.

"Will you listen to us?" Tony asked Hulk. "That little witch is messing with your mind."

"She scrambled your brains, dude!" Vanitas exclaimed. "You gotta fight her!"

"Your stronger than her," Tony continued. "You're smarter than her. You're Bruce Banner."

Hulk roared.

"Right, right, right, don't mention puny Banner," Tony quickly corrected himself.

"Oh, god, i didn't miss this part of the multi-personality disorder," Vanitas commented.

Hulk picked up a car next to him and threw it at Tony, who easily caught it. Then Hulk rushed in and punched Tony through the car, knocking him back onto the road. Vanitas flew up and punched Hulk right in the face with his gloved fist, but was caught and roared at. Luckily, Tony had recovered and was flying towards Hulk, grabbing him with one hand.

"Okay!" Tony commented as Bruce loosened his grip on Vanitas.

Vanitas exclaimed in relief as Hulk let him go, and he followed Tony as he dragged Hulk through the street as he flew through the air. But then they reached a part where Hulk was able to kick Tony off, throwing him down the street. The two combatants started to recover, so Vanitas jumped onto Hulk's back, wrapping his arms around his neck to try to do a choke hold to try to knock him out.

Hulk barely registered Vanitas as he charged at Tony in the Hulk Buster suit. Hulk lunged at Tony, but Tony knocked him aside and blasted him with a laser. Vanitas got the right sense to let go and fell to the ground while Hulk got sent flying into a cube van, sending boxes flying.

Vanitas recovered and went with Tony around the van to look for Hulk, and the latter ended up being knocked through the air by Hulk hitting him with a long pole. Vanitas ducked as Hulk swung the pole at him while Tony got knocked into a large, ornate building.

"Fuck me!" Vanitas exclaimed as he flew up to dodge Hulk's attacks.

Hulk jumped into the air, aiming towards Vanitas, but decided to go after Tony instead. Just as Tony landed on the street, Hulk landed on top of him and jabbed his pole right into the Hulk Buster suit.

"In the back?" Tony complained. "Dick move, Banner."

Hulk then started ripping the gears off of Tony's suit, trying to get to him inside it. Vanitas pulled out a grenade and lobed it at Hulk, which blew up and made him change his attention. While Hulk roared at Vanitas, Tony had one of the arms of his suit switch around so it could raise and point its thruster at Hulk, firing a blast that sent him flying, right into an open marketplace.

"That's not gonna help our image," Vanitas commented, while Tony started moving the remains of his left arm piece.

"Veronica, give me a hand," Tony requested.

So, Veronica started sending pieces out of its frame, and they started flying towards the Hulk Buster suit. Tony deposited the left arm, and he and Vanitas watched as Hulk started charging through stands, running towards them. Tony fired lasers and Vanitas blasted fireballs to slow down Hulk while the parts started to attach themselves on the Hulk Buster suit to reform the arm.

Hulk fought through the lasers and the fire and got close to Tony just as the fist attached itself. Tony punched at the same time as Hulk, and their fists met, sending out a shockwave that shattered lots of windows and sent Vanitas to the ground.

Tony gasped while Hulk jumped up to try to attack. But Tony managed to catch him and slammed him to the ground. Using the Hulk Buster suit, Tony held down Hulk with one hand while the other hand acted as a fast battering ram, repeatedly punching the green giant in the face very quickly.

"Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep," Tony muttered in a beg.

"No one can stay awake after being hit in the face so many times," Vanitas said, figuring out Tony's strategy. "Hope it works."

It didn't. Hulk soon caught the metal fist in his own fist, but then Tony had gears extend out and wrap around the green man's forearm. Hulk roared out in anger as Tony engaged his thrusters and flew up into the air, carrying Hulk. Vanitas flew after them seconds later.

"Okay, pal, we're gonna get you out of town," Tony told Hulk.

"Gotta make sure you don't hurt anyone," Vanitas added.

But then Hulk punched Tony with his other hand, causing them to veer off to the side with the flight.

"Not that way, not that way," Tony commented.

"Crap!" Vanitas exclaimed, flying after his friends.

They ended up crashing through a glass window some place that had an outdoor walkway with glass railings. Tony got knocked to a floor in front of some frightened people, and Hulk climbed on top and started punching him. Vanitas then appeared and exclaimed in pain as he activated his telekinesis himself, lifting Hulk off of Tony and forcing him against a nearby wall. Tony flew after Hulk and pressed Hulk to the wall with his hands, allowing Vanitas some relief. He thought he was experiencing a nosebleed again.

"Come on, Bruce!" Tony complained. "You gotta work with us."

Vanitas heard the sound of an elevator dinging open. He looked over his shoulder to see people now panicking and trying to close the elevator doors. He was so distracted, he momentarily forgot about his fighting friends. You know, until Hulk kicked Tony off of him and knocked him into that elevator, sending the frame and the people inside down towards the ground.

But Vanitas and Tony acted fast, with the latter grabbing the cable and floating in the air, just close enough to the ground for the people to simply just hop out. Vanitas floated down next to the elevator.

"Everybody, out!" Vanitas ordered, gesturing for the people to climb out, which they started doing.

Up in the air, Hulk lunged at Tony, who knocked him aside with the Hulk Buster suit, sending the green giant crashing onto a nearby set of stairs. Once everyone was out of the elevator, Tony grabbed the cable with both hands and raised it up.

"Going down?" Tony quipped as he slammed the elevator frame into Hulk, smashing it to pieces.

Hulk had no time to recover as Tony and Vanitas flew towards him, Tony punching and Vanitas kicking, both of them in the head. Hulk slowly got up onto his hands and knees and looked at them with a mean frown. He paused for a bit to spit a tooth out, the frown never dropping as he growled a bit.

Vanitas and Tony both went wide eyed, frozen in fear.

"I'm sorry," Tony said in a small voice.

"We didn't mean it," Vanitas said in a voice just as small.

They ended up being thrown through a building by Bruce, and Tony managed to brace himself with his thrusters before crashing into another one, while Vanitas crashed directly into it. Hulk then tackled Tony into the side of the building, then proceeded to beat Tony against the glass wall. Tony flew up, taking out more of the wall as Hulk held on tight, with Vanitas flying up after them.

They kept flying up into the air, with Hulk still doing lots of damage to the Hulk Buster suit, soon getting on Tony's back and ripping of a particularly large piece of armor with his bare hands.

"Damage report," Tony requested, getting nothing but static in response.

"I don't think that's a good sign," Vanitas commented.

"That's comprehensive," Tony said with some sarcasm. "Show me something."

Veronica was still following them, and had just sent out two more parts towards them. But Hulk swatted one into the other, causing them both to explode. Vanitas grabbed onto Hulk's back again and pressed his armored fingers into a pressure point he knew of where the neck met the shoulder, but that had no use.

"What the hell?!" Vanitas exclaimed, trying and failing some more.

Tony, meanwhile, looked past Hulk to see a large building under construction. After a quick scan, he found that there were no life forms inside.

"How quickly can we buy this building?" Tony asked.

"Not fast enough," Vanitas informed him.

They flew above the building, and Vanitas flew off of Hulk while Tony dropped the green giant and sent out some missiles. Tony then flew directly at Hulk, tackling him down to the building at the same time the missiles hit, causing the entire thing to start blowing up. Vanitas watched and couldn't stop wincing as the building was soon completely destroyed, sending debris all across the build sight, and causing a whole lot of smoke to start falling into the city.

Vanitas floated down as the dust started to clear, just in time to see Hulk burst out of the rubble on the ground and roar. But then he could see as the red faded from Hulk's eyes, signaling that the effects from Wanda's spell had finally worn off. He looked around with surprise, witnessing the destruction he had caused and all the people running away from him in fear. His attention was soon drawn to the police officers pointing assault rifles at him, and he roared in response. But then Tony reappeared and punched Hulk in the face, knocking him down, finally into unconsciousness.

"Should have broken out my rocket launcher," Vanitas commented with a pant.

Things _really_ hadn't gone the way they wanted them to...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 Of course people are gonna be stunned to have actual Disney characters in front of them in real life. And I figured Mickey would be a good subject to have that tripping vision from, because between his guilt over Aqua, and Riku and Cloud's guilt over choosing to use darkness, they all were good candidates for those things
> 
> *2 I think I got really dark there. Now I feel bad for doing that to Mickey. What surprises me most is I came up with half of that on the spot. How dark is it inside my head?


	7. The Barton Farm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With nowhere else to go to recover from the latest fight, Clint brings the team back to his home, where they make a surprising discovery...

It wasn't easy, but the more conscious members of the team were able to round up the seven people that had been affected by Wanda's magic and get them to the Quinjet, where they found that she had also made Donald and Goofy see their worst fears. Donald was whining about crashing a boat with Daisy on it, and Goofy was crying about being abandoned on a planet and never seeing his son again.

"Wow, she fucked them up good," Vanitas had commented.

They were soon all together on the ship and traveling away from Africa, soon passing over grey clouds and through a dark sky that matched the somber atmosphere in the jet. The members of the team were all trying to recuperate, but it was difficult to get over the horrors that the young Enhanced had made them see. The worst of the group was Bruce, who had wrapped his sweaty form in a blanket and was currently resting against a seat, ashamed of the damage he had caused as Hulk.

While Steve, Thor, Natasha, Bruce, Riku, Cloud, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy recovered in the back, Sora, Vanitas, Tony, and Clint sat at the front seats of the Quinjet, with Kairi standing next to Sora. Clint piloted the jet they looked at they listened to Maria over the transmitter back at the base.

" _The news is loving you guys_ ," Maria commented. " _Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest but it's in the air_."

"The Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked.

" _Already on the scene_ ," Maria told him. " _How's the team?_ "

"Not in the best of shape," Sora admitted.

"We really got our asses handed to us," Kairi admitted.

Vanitas held back his surprise that the redhead had beat him by two seconds.

"We took a hit," Tony said. "We'll shake it off."

"We always do," Vanitas added with a nod of the head.

" _Well, for now, I'd stay in stealth mode and stay away from here_ ," Maria suggested.

"So, run and hide?" Tony asked, looking down at Maria's image on the monitor next to him.

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer," Maria admitted.

Tony sighed out, "Neither do we."

He turned off the monitor, ending the call.

"Can't even go back home," Vanitas commented. "Sometimes, I hate that we're universally known."

"It's definitely got its downsides," Tony agreed, standing up from his seat.

He walked up to the pilot's chair and grabbed ahold of some of the handles, looking down at Clint.

"Hey, you wanna switch out?" Tony offered.

"No, I'm good," Clint said. "If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time because we're still a few hours out."

"Get some kip?" Sora asked, frowning in confusion.

"Take a nap," Vanitas translated.

"Oh," Sora said.

"Few hours from where?" Tony asked.

Clint paused for a second before answering, "A safe house."

They took him up on his offer and rested for a little while. Clint kept flying until they were back in America, with the early morning sun starting to break through some clouds in the sky. He flew them over some forests until a farm came into view in the distance. People started getting back up as Clint landed next to the trees, quite a bit of a walk from the house.

Everyone picked up their gear and left the ship, following Clint as he led the way to the house while carrying Natasha. They walked in a line along the grass and through a wooden fence, going right up to the porch.

"What is this place?" Thor asked as he walked after Clint and Natasha up the stairs.

"Looks like a farm," Cloud said in a slightly reprimanding manner.

"Safe house," Tony repeated Clint's earlier words as the rest of the large group started up onto the porch.

He and Thor shared a look as Clint grabbed the doorknob.

"Let's hope," Clint told them, carrying Natasha through the door.

He led the way into the house, with everyone following after into the entrance hall and a living room. The living room had a couple of chairs, multiple couches lined with pillows and stuffed animals and an ornate table, and a small desk next to a couch with a lamp on top. There was a small countertop behind one couch, which showed to the kitchen on the other side that was directly attached to a wooden dining table with multiple wooden chairs around it. There were some other chairs and stools next to the counter, specifically for people to sit at them.

"Honey?" Clint called out as he let go of Natasha and looked to the archway to a kitchen and dining room. "I'm home."

A brunette woman wearing a patterned shirt walked into view from the dining room, surprise on her face. She had different colored papers with a packet of markers in one hand, and her stomach was swollen, making it clear she was in the latter months of pregnancy.

"Hi," Clint said as she started walking towards him, setting down the papers and markers. "Company. Sorry, didn't call ahead."

He and the woman smiled at each other before sharing a kiss and a hug.

"This is an agent of some kind," Tony quickly told Thor.

"Uh, yeah, one hell of an agent," Kairi commented with sarcasm.

"Gentlemen, this is Laura," Clint said, introducing the woman, who they figured was most likely his wife.

Laura waved and laughed as she admitted, "I know most of your names."

Tony gave a slightly awkward wave, not knowing what to do as he and most of the team stood in front of a couch and a window. Their attentions were soon drawn to the sounds of footsteps on the floor, getting closer.

"Ooh, incoming," Clint commented.

Two young children ran into the room, a taller boy and a shorter girl with two braids in her hair.

"Dad!" the girl, Lila, said, running to grab Clint's legs in a hug.

"Hi, sweetheart!" Clint said with a laugh, picking up Lila before wrapping his arm around his son, Cooper's head in a hug. "Hey, buddy. How you guys doing?"

Most of the team was visibly shocked and surprised. *** _1_ ***

"This might be the most surprising thing I've learned this week," Riku admitted. "Which is really saying something."

"You said it," Goofy agreed.

"These are... smaller agents," Tony said, gesturing to Clint's children.

"Look at your face!" Clint gushed to his daughter. "Oh, my goodness."

He set Lila back down onto her feet.

"Whoa!" Cooper said, gesturing to Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.

"Yeah, we're real," Donald said, trying to hold back his annoyance at being called out since this was a kid.

"Please don't say you want a selfie," Mickey begged.

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" Lila asked, not even noticing the three Disney characters.

Clint gasped, while Natasha visibly got excited by the young girl's words.

"Why don't you hug her and find out?" Natasha asked, walking over to the young girl with the most authentic smile most of the Avengers had seen on her.

Lila jumped at Natasha to hug her, who then picked the young girl up into her arms as the hug grew stronger. Clint and Laura smiled as they each wrapped an arm around the other.

"Sorry for barging in on you," Steve finally said.

"It wasn't part of the plan," Sora said.

"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea you existed," Tony admitted with crossed arms, looking at Clint in annoyance.

"Yeah, well, Fury helped me set this up when I joined," Clint told them, one arm around his wife and the other around his son. "He kept if off of SHIELD's files. I'd like to keep it that way."

"Makes sense, especially since SHIELD ended up being HYDRA," Vanitas admitted. "If you had the job we had, you'd want to protect your loved ones from the enemies who'd try to hurt them to... screw with you."

He had paused to think of a more age appropriate word than fuck. Which surprised Sora and Riku.

" _Now_ you show a sense of restraint with your swearing?" Sora asked.

"You were fourteen when we met," Vanitas reminded him. "Most kids start swearing when they're ten."

"He's got a point," Riku admitted.

"Anyway," Clint said. "I figure it's a good place to lay low."

Cloud had went over to one of the couches and just sat down, contemplating the vision that was shown to him by Wanda, just drowning out everyone else's words. Vanitas honestly couldn't blame him after what he had seen the blonde witness. Having his own friend attack him like that and declare he'd rather die than live with him anymore... Even if it was a vision, it's enough to mess you up.

His attention was soon drawn to Thor and Steve as they looked down at the floor. Apparently, Thor had accidentally broken a lego house back to pieces under his foot. He shot an embarrassed look to Steve, who shrugged his shoulders. He then looked at Vanitas.

"Don't look at me," Vanitas said. "I haven't played with kids this young since I was their age. I don't remember how to interact around 'em."

While they were doing that, Natasha had set down Lila and was greeting Laura.

"I missed you," Natasha said before smiling at Laura's stomach and pressing her hands to it. "How's little Natasha?"

Thor pushed the lego pieces under the table and nodded to Steve and Vanitas while still looking confused while Laura looked down at her stomach with Natasha.

"She's..." Laura started, looking up at Natasha again with a sheepish expression. "Nathaniel."

The smile dropped from Natasha's face. She then leaned down to Laura's stomach and whispered, "Traitor."

That caused Kairi, Sora, and Vanitas to start laughing.

While members of the team started talking to each other, Lila walked up to Thor and gave him a contemplative expression. Thor, in turn, looked down at the girl and gave her a similar expression before closing his eyes, seeing the images from his visions. Then a toaster popped up toast, bringing him back to reality.

Thor turned towards the entrance hall and started walking back towards it, soon followed by Steve, Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"Thor?" Steve asked as they walked after their friend onto the porch.

"You all right?" Donald asked as the blonde walked down the steps.

"I saw something in that dream," Thor admitted before turning and looking at them. "I need answers. I won't find them here."

"Well, at least take someone with you," Sora said, preparing himself.

"Good idea," Thor agreed.

He then grabbed Goofy with his free hand and pulled him in close, wrapping an arm around the dog.

"Come along, Sir Goofy," Thor said.

Goofy had just enough time to share a wide eyed look with his friends before spinning Mjölnir by the strap for a second and launching it up into the air, propelling them up. Goofy did his usual yell as he flew through the air with Thor before they both left the others' eyesights. *** _2_ ***

"Aw, man, I wanted to go with him!" Sora complained. "I should have been more obvious."

"Sora..." Donald said, annoyance in his voice.

Steve stared with them up in the air for a few seconds before he turned away from them and towards the door. But he paused when he heard Peggy's voice in his head repeating, "We can go home."

Steve then paused for a few seconds before he looked down and sighed out. He then turned away from the door and walked down the stairs, down across the lawn.

"Steve?" Sora called out.

The soldier kept walking across the lawn.

"He'll be back soon," Donald assured him. "He knows we gotta work together to take down Ultron, so he'll definitely come back."

"Yeah," Sora said, nodding his head in agreement. "Now let's head inside. I wanna play with those kids' legos."

Donald sighed out at his friend's child-like nature and followed him back into the farm.

* * *

It didn't take too long for them to settle in at the house and clean themselves up a bit. The members of the team that wore special suits for their battles changed into more casual clothes, some provided by Clint. Clint, meanwhile, was in his room with his wife, who was observing the part of his side that he had told her he got hit.

"See?" Clint asked. "You worried for nothing. Can't even feel the difference, can you?"

Laura looked up at Clint as she lowered the shirt back down.

"If they're sleeping here, some of them are gonna have to double up," she told him.

Clint laughed, "Yeah, that's not gonna sell."

He walked across the room to his closet, followed by Laura.

"What about Nat and Dr. Banner?" Laura asked. "How long has that been going on?"

"Has what?" Clint asked as he grabbed a flannel shirt.

Laura laughed as she put a shirt in a tweed hamper.

"You are so cute," she told Clint.

"Nat and Banner?" Clint asked. "I mean, we all kinda know about Sora and Kairi, which is why they're definitely not doubling up in a room. But those two?"

"I'll explain when you're older, Hawkeye," Laura said with a laugh.

"Well, okay," Clint said in resignation as he slipped on the flannel shirt.

"It's bad, right?" Laura asked, walking closer to Clint. "Nat seems really shaken. So do Riku, Mr. Strife, and... Mickey Mouse."

Clint sighed out as he remembered how his friends were.

"Ultron has these allies," he told Laura. "These, uh, kids. They're punks, really. But they carry a big, damn stick. And Nat took a serious hit, along with those three. Apparently, they all saw some heavy shit. Someone's gonna have to teach those brats some manners."

He started walking past Laura across the room again, and she followed his slow pace with her own.

"That someone being you," Laura said. "You know I totally support your avenging. I couldn't be prouder." Clint sat down in front of a desk next to a window, giving them a view of the front yard, where Tony and Steve were meeting together to chop some wood. "But I see those guys, those gods..."

"You don't think they need me," Clint assessed.

"I think they do, which is a lot scarier," Laura corrected him. Clint looked up at her. "They're a mess."

Clint sighed out as he looked out the window, seeing Steve meet up with Tony with the former putting his hands on his hips.

"Yeah," Clint agreed. "I guess they're my mess."

Laura started rubbing her hand on the back of Clint's head. "You need to be sure that this team is really a team, and that they have your back."

Clint stood up and he and his wife looked into each others' eyes.

"Things are changing for us," Laura told him. She looked down at her stomach. "In a few months' time, you and me are gonna be outnumbered. I need... Just be sure."

Clint nodded his head and said, "Yes, ma'am."

They shared a kiss and a hug before Clint wrapped an arm around her and they looked out the window at the duo chopping wood. Laura slipped her hand under Clint's shirt and felt his side again.

"I can feel the difference," she told him.

Clint smirked, but then his attention was drawn to the sound of something breaking in the room next to them.

"Speaking of my mess," he quipped as he reluctantly took his arm off of his wife and walked out of the room.

Clint walked up to the door and knocked two times.

"Everything okay?" Clint asked, not remembering who he had given this room to.

"Yeah..." Cloud answered. "I just..."

After a couple of seconds of receiving no answer, Clint opened the door and found Cloud standing next to a window, dressed in the jeans and black tank top provided to him. The window itself was broken and shattered, and since there was no glass on the floor, Clint quickly figured out what was going on.

"Uh, what happened?" he asked, as Riku walked up next to him, curious.

"Uh, something got thrown out the window," Cloud said sheepishly.

"Yeah, I could see that," Clint said, looking around the room. He soon found a desk top with a chair next to it, but it was missing something. "Uh, I'm pretty sure there was a lamp on that desk."

Cloud looked at the desk, then back up at Clint.

"I'll... pay for all the damages," he said, still sheepish.

"You're damn right you will," Clint commented.

Cloud sighed out and sat down on the bed, looking down.

"So, you wanna talk about what persuaded you to throw a lamp through my window?" Clint asked.

"You wouldn't understand," Cloud said, not even looking up at Clint.

"I once had my mind controlled by a crazy ass god with a heavy obsession with Shakespeare," Clint said with his arms crossed. "Try me."

Riku raised an eyebrow at the man's words, remembering the story that Sora and Vanitas had told him about their previous adventure to this world. Cloud sighed out as he looked up at Clint.

"When the girl messed with my head, I saw my old best friend, Zack Fair," Cloud explained. "He left our world when we were kids to try to become a great hero, as both a way to follow his inspiration, Sephritoth, yes, that Sephiroth..." He said to Riku and Clint's surprised looks. "...and to impress the girl he liked, Aerith Gainsborough."

"After about a year of him not coming back, I left to search for him," Cloud continued. "The weird time differences between worlds ended up making me grow up at a faster rate than my friends back home. I searched for Zack for years, barely finding any hints of Zack. After a while, I started giving into the powers of darkness to try to search for him. I did... horrible things to try to find him. I tortured, killed, and hurt a lot of people who got in my way. Most of them were evil, but the others..."

He looked down and breathed out, and Riku and Clint could hear the guilt in it.

"Sephiroth had given to darkness around that time," Cloud continued. "He took great interest in me because we were from the same world. The more I gave into darkness, the more he absorbed from me. He urged me on, and grew stronger by the day with all the darkness he drew from me. And once he did, he went after Zack. I tracked them both to Olympus Coliseum, where I had met the god, Hades, who told me If I gave into my darkness, he would help me find Sephiroth. I knew it was a bad idea, but I was desperate to find Zack, and guilty over enhancing the strength of that bastard, so I gave in. That's when I met Sora, V, Donald, and Goofy. They helped me out, and I found Sephiroth on my own after they left. We fought, and I ended up at Hollow Bastion. And well, you guys know the story from there." *** _3_ ***

"Damn," Riku commented.

"You said that the girl had made you see Zack," Clint said. "What'd he do?"

"He knew about what I did to find him," Cloud admitted. "And he said he couldn't believe that I would do all that to find him. The ground then opened up to the fires of hell, and I caught him before he could fall. But then he said he'd rather die than live in a world I lived in, and..."

Cloud looked down and breathed in and out, trying to steady himself.

"I know what you're going through," Riku admitted. "During Sora and V's first journey, I gave into my own darkness to try to help Kairi. I was tricked by a bitch into helping her. I kidnapped innocent people and stole them from their worlds so she could use them for a Keyhole. I gave into darkness and let a Seeker steal my body, who used it to hurt my friends. You're not the only one who has to deal with guilt of their pasts."

"Neither of you are," Clint agreed. "When Loki brainwashed me, he used my intel of SHIELD to get the ingredients he needed for his conquest to take over the world. He had me fight through my own teammates at SHIELD. I blew up part of our headquarters, the helicarrier. I still don't know how many people I killed that day, because Natasha told me it didn't matter. But I still have nightmares of all the damage and carnage I caused."

Clint walked up to Cloud and put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, making the blonde look up.

"How do we get over this guilt?" Cloud asked.

"We make up for the damage by being better versions of ourselves," Clint told him. "We can't take back what we did, but we can do what we can to make up for it. If we can use what we have to better the world, then we can repent for the damages we caused. If you want a simpler answer, stop worrying about the people you hurt in your past and try to do some good shit with your life instead."

Both Cloud and Riku took in his words, as they had both been dealing with visions of their violent pasts. Riku nodded his head as he took in Clint's advice. He felt like he was doing a pretty good job of following it so far, with helping Sora and Vanitas take out Xemnas while also helping them and the Guardians battle Ego and the Avengers on this world. Riku knew he had made some progress, but he still had a ways to go before he could accept that he had bettered himself.

Of course, Cloud was still kinda far from accepting that himself. He was still getting over his own guilt over the years looking for Zack, but he knew there was some truth in Clint's advice. Maybe he could find a way to repent for his dangerous past... once Sephiroth was gone.

* * *

Meanwhile in Seoul, Korea, at the U-Gin Genetics Research Lab, Dr. Helen Cho was walking through one section of the lab, giving orders to her staff in Korean. She walked through the door of her private lab with the Cradle, and the door slid shut behind her. Unfortunately, she was shocked to find Ultron, already uploaded into a new body nearly exactly like his old one, and Sephiroth already inside waiting for her.

"Scream, and your entire staff dies," Ultron told her.

"I won't hesitate," Sephiroth admitted, gripping his Masamune on his back. "Hell, after not being able to kill Jordan, I actually want to kill someone..."

"Down, boy," Ultron told Sephiroth, who reluctantly let go of his sword. He looked at Helen. "I could've killed you, Helen, the night we met. I didn't."

"Do you expect a thank-you note?" Helen asked, looking up at the robot.

"I expect you to know why," Ultron said.

Helen looked down at the large device next to the two.

"The Cradle," she assessed.

Ultron observed the Cradle while playing back her words, " _This is the next thing, Tony_."

"This is the next me," Ultron said, placing a hand on the closed Cradle.

"The Regeneration Cradle prints tissue," Helen said. "It can't build a living body."

"It can," Ultron corrected her. "You can." He walked towards Helen, who in turn backed away. "You lack the materials."

Helen's attention was drawn to an Ultron bot walking out of the shadows, carrying the case of vibranium.

"You're a brilliant woman, Helen," Ultron said.

Helen turned around at the sight of blue light appearing in her vision. She gasped in surprise at the sight of another Ultron bot wielding the gold scepter with the blue gem. She could only watch as the bot pressed the point to the center of her chest, making blue light travel through her veins and her eyes to go completely black.

"But we all have room to improve," Ultron finished with what could be interpreted as a smirk.

' _That is one crazy ass scepter_ ,' Sephiroth thought. He smirked. ' _Hopefully, he'll let me use it on Cloud..._ ' *** _4_ ***

* * *

Back at Barton farm, Sora and Kairi were had left Cooper's room, both of them a little scared after seeing the kid play the one of few video games he had.

"I will never get why V likes Resident Evil so much," Sora admitted with a gag.

"And that subtitle, Revelations 2?" Kairi asked. "Who the hell would want to see that stuff a second time?"

Needless to say, both Cooper and Riku ended up laughing at the two as they left the room. They went along the hallways of the second floor to try to find someone they knew, and soon found themselves near an open doorway. Peeking inside, they could see Natasha sitting on a bed in a bathrobe, before running water stopped and a door to a bathroom opened inside.

"Uh..." they heard Bruce say as Natasha started to stand up. "I didn't realize you were waiting."

"I would've joined you, but uh, it didn't seem like the right time," Natasha admitted.

Sora and Kairi made sure they were hidden in the hallway, but not so hidden that they couldn't hear their friends' words.

"We shouldn't," Sora whispered.

Kairi shook her head in agreement.

"But we're gonna do it, anyway?" Kairi asked.

Sora nodded his head in agreement.

' _I love you_ ,' Kairi thought with a smirk, hoping Vanitas wasn't around to hear that.

"I...used up all the hot water," they heard Bruce admit.

"I should have joined you," Natasha commented.

"Missed our window," Bruce said with a chuckle.

"Did we?" Natasha asked.

Both were silent for a second, before Sora and Kairi were able to hear Bruce say, "The world just saw the Hulk... The real Hulk, for the first time... You know I have to leave."

"You assume that I have to stay?" Natasha countered.

Sora and Kairi shared a nervous look at the thought of two of their friends leaving.

"I, uh, had this thing put into my head... this dream," Natasha continued. "The kind that seems normal at the time, it seems right."

"What did you dream?" Bruce asked.

"...That I was an Avenger," Natasha admitted. "That I was more than what they made me. That..."

"I think you're being hard on yourself," Bruce said as she paused.

"Here I was hoping that was your job," Natasha admitted with a chuckle.

Sora and Kairi could then only hear the two of them breathing before they could barely make out Bruce whispering, "What are you doing?"

"I'm running with it," Natasha whispered back, which the two could also barely make out. "With you... If running is the plan. As far as you want."

"Are you out of your mind?" Bruce asked, making Kairi and Sora frown.

They could hear the sound of the floorboards creaking, so they guessed Bruce was walking away from Natasha. Praying that he wasn't moving towards the door, they kept listening as best they could.

"I want you to understand that, um..." Natasha started. "What we're talking about, I never..."

"Natasha, where can I go?" Bruce asked, legitimately curious for her answer. "Where in the world am I not a threat?"

"You're not a threat to me," Natasha told him.

' _Really? Cause we were in a lot of danger from Hulk last time I was here_ ,' Sora thought, remembering running through the helicarrier, being chased by Hulk.

"Are you sure?" Bruce asked, voicing part of Sora's thoughts. "Even if I didn't just... There's no future with me. I can't ever... I can't have this. Kids. Do the math. I physically can't."

Sora and Kairi felt sorry for Bruce, hearing the turmoil in their friend's voice as he talked about what he can't do anymore. And just when they thought they couldn't feel even more bad, Natasha admitted, "Neither can I."

Sora and Kairi looked up in confusion at that, as did Bruce.

"In the Red Room where I was trained, where I was raised, um..." Natasha begrudgingly continued. "They have a graduation ceremony." Everyone listening could hear the distress and turmoil in her voice as she admitted, "They sterilize you. It's efficient."

She sighed out before saying, "One less thing to worry about. The one thing that matters more than a mission... Makes everything easier... Even killing."

Sora and Kairi's jaws dropped at Natasha's revelation. Even though he had missed school for over a year, Sora could understand what Natasha was talking about when she said "sterilize." The sadness in her voice and the sound of how close she was to tears actually brought tears to their eyes that they shed for their friend.

"You still think you're the only monster on the team?" Natasha asked, with understandable shakiness in her voice.

Bruce said nothing before sighing out in consideration, taking in her words.

"So, we disappear?" Bruce asked.

"We keep moving," Natasha corrected him. "And we don't play circle of life, we just play."

After a second, Bruce softly asked, "And the dead?"

After another second, Natasha said, "They're dead.

Kairi and Sora risked things by leaning closer to the door to hear better. That allowed them to almost hear Bruce whisper, "Not to me. Not ever."

Natasha was silent for a second before she started saying, "Bruce..."

"Never," Bruce confirmed.

"Wow..." Natasha said. "I guess I better clean up then."

"The water's cold," Bruce reminded her.

"No shit," Natasha said. "By the way, Sora, Kairi, I know you guys are listening."

The two teens were just feeling bad for Bruce at hearing the turmoil in his voice towards the skeletons in his closet. But then the two perked up, shared a look of fear, then ran down the hallway, passing Riku and Donald. The silver haired teen and mallard watched them run for a second before htheir attention was drawn to the open door, seeing the still wet haired Bruce staring at them.

"What'd Sora and Kairi do?" Donald asked.

"Listened in on mine and Nat's private conversation," Bruce said.

"I'll talk to them, then V and I'll kick Sora's ass," Riku assured him, continuing down the hallway.

"I'll help you guys," Donald said, walking with Riku.

"Thanks, Riku. Thanks, Donald." Bruce said, sighing out as he thought about the discussion he just had with Natasha.

* * *

During all that, Vanitas had cleaned up and dressed in a short sleeved black and white Fall Out Boy shirt and blue jeans that he had in his bag, perfect for casual times at the house. He had placed his robes into his sling, which he carried in his left arm as he went through the house. He had left the bathroom he changed in and went downstairs, wanting to help Steve and Tony with chopping wood. However, his attention was drawn to the sound of quick, high pitched breathing.

Curious, Vanitas looked around the living room, tracking the sound to a nearby closet. He opened the closet, and was surprised to see Mickey looking down with his eyes closed, close to hyperventilating. The king recovered as quickly as he could and looked up at Vanitas.

"Dude, you all right?" Vanitas asked.

"Y-yeah, fine," Mickey said. Trying to change the subject, he said, "You know, with your voice back to how it used to be, you're pretty close to being how you were when we met a decade ago. Nothing can be done about the scar, but if you could limit your cussing, then you'd be exactly like you were before."

"Sorry to fucking disappoint," Vanitas said with a smirk when he could see neither of Clint's children around. The smile dropped from Vanitas's face as he crouched down so he could see his friend better. "Tell me what's bothering you. This friendship thing of us talking about our problems is a two way street, man."

Mickey looked up at Vanitas again before looking down and sighing out.

"How much do you remember Ventus, Aqua, and Terra?" Mickey asked.

"As much as I've seen in the few memories I have," Vanitas admitted. "I know Roxas looks exactly like Ven for some reason. I know Terra had problems with darkness. I know Aqua was the only one of the three of them to also become a Master. And I know Xehanort's the reason the three of them aren't here today. But I don't know why Xehanort, Ansem and Xemnas looked so young after seeing that old ass bald dude in my memories."

"Master Yen Sid and I are still trying to figure that last one out, too," Mickey admitted. "But whatever happened to them, Aqua somehow got trapped in the dark realm."

Vanitas frowned as he took in his friend's words, remembering sensing her presence in danger at the doors after they had killed Ansem.

"She was there," he said. "When we closed Kingdom Hearts. She was in danger." He looked up at a slightly confused Mickey before the king figured things out. "You were in there with her. What happened?"

"I saw her down there," Mickey admitted. "When I was looking for the Keyblade of Darkness. She and I fought Heartless, a Demon Tower and a Demon Tide. But as we got the Keyblade, we found the doors, and Riku down there. The Demon Tide charged at Riku, and Aqua protected him without him ever seeing it happen. The Demon Tide knocked me aside and took her back into the darkness, with the way after her disappearing."

Vanitas went wide eyed at Mickey's explanation, hearing the turmoil that his old friend had gone through.

"Why haven't we already gone back down to help her?" Vanitas asked.

"You said it yourself back at Avengers Tower," Mickey said. "Riku and Sora aren't Masters, so they aren't strong enough to go down and bring her back with us. You might be with your Keyblade, but..."

Vanitas sighed out in defeat, knowing that there was some truth in his friend's words, just not liking that truth.

"So what did you see in the vision the hot girl showed you?" Vanitas asked.

"I was back in the place we fought the Demon Tide," Mickey explained. "She was fighting with it against me, and..."

"No need," Vanitas said, waving a hand to assure him he could stop talking. "I can already figure what happened. I'm guessing it really hit you where it hurts that our friend was fighting you with that fucking thing?"

Mickey nodded his head.

"Understandable," Vanitas admitted. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "But you gotta know that it's not your fault she's down there. Whatever happened, I don't remember, but you weren't there when it did. Whatever the hell caused her to get trapped even further down there, you had nothing to do with it. We're gonna get back my memories and my Keyblade, we're gonna get Sora and Riku to take the Exam so they can become Masters, and we're gonna get her back. I promise you."

Mickey nodded his head, then looked up at Vanitas and smiled gratefully.

"Thanks, V," Mickey said.

"No problem," Vanitas said, returning the smile. "Now, I gotta get going. Tony and Steve are gonna need help chopping wood." *** _5_ ***

No they didn't.

Vanitas jogged outside to the front lawn to see the sun up high in the air, and Tony and Steve already well into chopping their logs in half. Steve had a pile of split logs that was about two or three times larger than Tony's, which was most likely due to the soldier's enhanced strength. Vanitas jogged up to them as Tony broke another log in half with an axe. Tony nodded at Vanitas in greeting before placing down the axe.

"Thor didn't say where he was going for answers?" Tony asked.

"Sometimes my teammates don't tell me things," Steve said as the three of them grabbed logs. He looked up at Clint on the porch with his kids to emphasize his point. "I was kinda hoping Thor would be the exception."

"Yeah, give him time," Tony commented as he, Vanitas, and Steve placed the logs they grabbed onto the tree stumps.

"You can't really expect everyone to be as honest to you," Vanitas told Steve. "Then everyone'd know how often everyone else looked at internet porn."

"Yeah, that'd be an embarrassing situation," Tony agreed. He looked at Steve. "You know, we don't know what the Maximoff kid showed Thor."

"Yeah, who knows how fucked up he got?" Vanitas asked.

Steve broke his log with an axe, while Vanitas broke his with his machete.

"'Earth's Mightiest Heroes'," Steve repeated the Avengers' nickname as he grabbed another log. "Pulled us apart like cotton candy."

"Seems like you walked away all right," Tony accused, picking up the axe.

Steve perked up at that.

"Is that a problem?" he asked.

"I don't trust a guy with a dark side," Tony admitted, breaking his log with the axe. "Call me old-fashioned."

"Pretty good notion," Vanitas agreed.

"Well, let's just say you haven't seen it yet," Steve told Tony.

"You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?" Tony asked.

"Well, I guess you'd know," Steve commented, holding his axe. "Whether you'd tell us is a bit of a question."

He broke the log on the stump with his axe.

"Banner, V, and I were doing research," Tony said.

"That would affect the team," Steve said.

"That would end the team!" Tony snapped. "Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the 'Why we fight'?" Steve picked up a log. "So we can end the fight. So we get to go home!"

In a fit of anger, Steve ripped the log in half with his bare hands, surprising Vanitas only slightly. Steve then looked at Tony.

"Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die," Steve said. He looked at Vanitas. "You know that, V, after what happened with Insight."

"I thought there was an exception to that problem," Vanitas commented. "Never would have figured that this shit would happen."

Tony said nothing as he and Steve stared at each other. The silence was soon broken by the arrival of Laura.

"I'm sorry," she greeted. "Mr Stark, Clint said you wouldn't mind, but our tractor doesn't seem to want to start at all. I thought maybe you might..."

"Yeah, V and I'll give her a kick," Tony assured her.

"Wait, why me?" Vanitas asked.

"You're the best at showing support while acting like you understand what's going on," Tony told him.

"Oh, yeah," Vanitas smirked, sliding his machete back into his sling.

Tony shot Steve a slight smile before he and Vanitas started walking around the tree stump they were next to. He made sure to stop for a second and gesture to his much smaller pile of split logs, saying, "Don't take from my pile."

Vanitas laughed as he and Tony walked across the lawn. Tony had stopped for a second to slip on the flannel shirt wrapped around his waist as they walked up to the barn. They entered the barn and looked around the large place.

"Naturally," Vanitas commented, gesturing to the archery target leaning on a wall.

They quickly found the tractor, which was obvious with the sunlight from an open window glaring down on it.

"Hello, Deere," Tony said as they walked up to the John Deere tractor. He started tinkering with parts of the tractor. "Tell me everything. What ails you?"

Vanitas looked up as he sensed a familiar presence in the room, and looked to the side just in time.

"Do me a favor," Nick Fury requested, walking into view. Tony got a slight knowing smile as he stopped tampering with the tractor. "Try not to bring it to life."

The man was dressed in a grey shirt, a dark suit like jacket and pants, and a black beanie on top of his bald head. His eyepatch was just as black, covering whatever was wrong with his eye.

"Why, Mrs. Barton, you little minx," Tony commented. "I get it. Maria Hill called you, right? Was she ever not working for you?"

"Knowing their reputation, probably not," Vanitas pointed out as they started walking towards Fury.

"Artificial Intelligence," Fury commented. "You never even hesitated."

"Look, it's been a really long day, like Eugene O'Neill long, so how's about we skip to the part where you're useful," Tony very bluntly requested.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you're going to shut him down," Fury requested.

"Obviously," Vanitas assured him.

"Not you, Jordan," Fury told him. "I mean Stark."

"You're not the director of me," Tony told Fury.

"I'm not the director of anybody," Fury admitted before sitting down. "I'm just an old man who cares very much about you."

Tony sighed out as he looked to the side.

"And I'm the man who killed the Avengers," he told Fury. While Vanitas understood from the vision, Fury expressed visual confusion. "V and I saw it. We didn't tell the team, at first. How could we? We saw them all dead, Nick."

"Everyone," Vanitas continued. "Not just the gang, but the friends that I lost and can't find. We felt it, they were gone."

"The whole world, too," Tony added as he and Vanitas started backing towards the tractor. "Because of me. I wasn't ready. Neither of us did all we could."

"Maximoff girl, she's working you, boys," Fury told them. "Playing on your fear."

"We weren't tricked, we were shown," Tony corrected Fury. It wasn't a nightmare, it was my legacy. The end of the path I started us on."

"And it isn't fear over unknown thought that got to me," Vanitas admitted. "It was fear over repeating the past. I can't remember, but I know that my friends being gone, as much as I can blame it all on Xehanort, I'm part of the reason it happened. And without my memories to verify whether that's true or not, that guilt is stuck with me. I just helped to try to stop from adding to that guilt." *** _6_ ***

"You guys are some good friends of mine," Fury said, standing up. "You come up with some pretty impressive inventions, Tony. War isn't one of them. And you're one of the strongest and loyalest soldiers I've ever met, V. You shouldn't let fears of the future affect your actions."

During his words, Tony walked around the tractor and grabbed a wrench and rag.

"I watched our friends die," Tony said, looking down at the wrench as he wiped it with the log. "You'd think that'd be as bad as it gets, right?" He scoffed. "Nope. It wasn't the worst part."

"The worst part was is that you didn't," Fury said.

"Survivor's guilt," Vanitas assessed. "It's a bitch."

"Very, yeah," Tony agreed, looking at his two companions.

The three said nothing as they stood in the barn, accepting some truth with each others' words...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I remember, I found this meme not too long back involving this scene. It went like this...  
> "Clint: Surprise, I'd a dad!  
> Tony: Surprise, I'm gay!  
> Steve: Tony, we were gonna wait to tell them!  
> Natasha: Surprise, Bruce and I are engaged!  
> Very confused Thor to Steve: What is happening? And when did you start liking penis?" 🤣
> 
> *2 Time for an unlikely team of Goofy and Thor
> 
> *3 I did my best to come up with a good enough backstory to explain why Sephiroth was obsessed with Cloud. Since Sephiroth apparently already existed in this universe, retconning my original thought that he was the physical manifestation of Cloud's darkness (in the same light of Ventus and Canon V), I had to come up with something. I hope I did a good job. And now you can see why there's a friendship tag for Clint and Cloud. Also, you have no idea how difficult it was to write that scene because I kept slipping between writing i or o what with the first two letters of their names
> 
> *4 Of course once he sees the scepter in action, Sephiroth's gonna get ideas to use it for himself. Too bad for him we already know that Ultron's got his own plans that'll contradict his own
> 
> *5 I felt like a discussion between Mickey and Vanitas here would work since they have the longest partnership of the group available. So V would be the one to reassure his friend over his guilt. Hopefully, Mickey will be able to help Vanitas over his own guilt
> 
> *6 That guilt will become really present when Vanitas gets his memories back in the next story. And you'll see why he has that guilt
> 
> I made sure to check the exact release date of RE Revelations 2 to make sure it worked with the time frame of the story. I wanted as much authenticity of Earth as I could. Especially with this weird ass version of Earth
> 
> This chapter ended up being longer than I expected, but I knew when I started that I wanted it to go from them leaving Africa to after the discussion between Fury, Vanitas, and Tony. But then I realized that I needed the discussion with Cloud and Clint that Riku joined in on, the entirety of Bruce and Natasha's conversation while also keeping up the usual of members of the group spying on the others, and Mickey and Vanitas having the conversation about Aqua. Surprisingly, none of this was what caused this chapter to be late. I was just lazy for two days
> 
> I honestly didn't know how to end the chapter after everything I put in it, so I hope that worked


	8. The Norn Cave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With some help from Goofy and an old friend, Thor seeks guidance at the Cave of the Norns. Elsewhere, the rest of the team strategizes while the Maximoffs discover the truth of Ultron and Sephiroth's motives...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good to have Erik back. I kinda hope he'll come back in a future movie. He had a nice friendship with Thor

Dressed in a black hoodie and jeans, more conspicuous clothing than his Asgardian armor, Thor leaned against a car in waiting at the University of London in Royal Holloway. He was waiting for the classes to dismiss, so his newly recovered friend, Dr. Erik Selvig, could help him with a specific problem.

Pretty soon, the school bell rang, and students started coming out of the doors and down the stairs.

"I'll see you tonight," Erik told a female student as they walked down the stairs.

"I'll see you then," the girl agreed.

"8:00, don't be late this time," Erik instructed as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

With his keys in hand, Erik walked across the sidewalk to where his car was parked, the first in the line, just in time to see Thor turn and face him.

"I like the look," Erik complimented his old friend as he walked to the driver's side door. "If you're going for inconspicuous, though, near miss. Plus, I would have given him a disguise."

Thor followed his friend's gestured arm to see Goofy standing next to him, wearing his normal clothes and showing off to everyone watching (and quite the crowd had gathered to watch) that he was indeed the talking dog from Disney.

"Howdy," Goofy greeted with a smile and a wave of his hand. "Nice to see you've recovered nicely, Dr. Selwig."

"Selvig," Thor corrected him. He sighed out and admitted, "We couldn't find any pants his size."

"Still," Erik said with a raised eyebrow.

"We need your help," Thor said, trying to change the subject.

"It's nice to be needed," Erik commented.

"It's dangerous," Thor admitted, resting his hands on the car roof.

"I'd be disappointed if it wasn't," Erik admitted as he opened the car door.

"I think we've had too big an influence on you," Goofy commented as Erik rested his bag in the car.

"We have to contact the Norns," Thor explained.

"The Norns?" Erik asked, looking at Thor. "Like the Fates, in Greek mythology?"

"A little bit different," Thor said, standing up straight.

"In what way?" Erik asked.

"Well, for one thing..." Thor said, opening the passenger's seat in front of him. "They're real."

He smirked at his friend before climbing into the car.

"Boy, are we in for a doozy of a show," Erik commented to Goofy.

"I'm starting to think no matter what I see in this universe, there'll always be something new to surprise me," Goofy admitted, climbing into the back seat.

"Join the club," Erik said, climbing into the driver's seat.

Erik followed Thor's instructions and drove his car out of the city and towards where he said the cave was. Once they reached the location of the cave, Erik led the way inside while carrying a box, while Goofy carried his shield just in case. They went through the cave and found a dip in the cave with water inside, forming a small pool that light from a hole above shined down on.

"So, this is it," Erik said. "The Water of Sight."

"I'm guessing this isn't drinking water?" Goofy asked, eyeing the pond with a bit of fear.

"No, you definitely don't wanna drink this water," Erik said. He looked over at Thor as they walked closer to the pool. "I thought the Norn Cave was in Asgard."

"In every realm, there's a reflection," Thor admitted. The Norns see what no eye can, what is and what's to come."

Erik opened the box he was carrying to reveal some herbs, along with multiple vials or glass bottles of various chemicals.

"Those are to invoke them," Thor explained, stepping next to Erik and Goofy. "It will take time and concentration."

"As long as I don't gotta drink it, it's all right with me," Goofy admitted as Thor crouched down to the water in front of him to see it better.

"You think they'll talk to you?" Erik asked.

"No," Thor admitted. "They'll talk to you and Sir Goofy."

They were both visible confused at his words.

"Now, the Norns expect a sacrifice for this privilege, they feed on life," Thor explained, standing up.

"You're the sacrifice?" Erik asked.

"I have more life than most," Thor justified. "Hopefully you can find out what we need before they consume me completely."

"There's a pleasant thought," Goofy commented, a little nervous.

"This is a new kind of dangerous," Erik said.

Thor's only response was to start speaking in a language that was not of this world.

"What?" Erik asked at the same time Goofy asked, "Huh?"

"The thing I fear contains the thing I need," Thor told them.

He then took out his flask.

"What's that for?" Erik asked.

"That's for me," Thor said. He unscrewed the top and raised it up. "The thing I need is scary."

He took a swing of his alcohol and screwed the top back on.

"Okay, that's justified," Goofy commented with his head cocked to the side in thought.

He and Erik looked away as Thor took off his shirt and jackets before dropping down into the water. Following his earlier instructions, they set up candles around the pool and lit them, getting everything ready. Within moments, Thor popped his head out of the water and stood waist deep, looking up at them with his glazed over white eyes. Erik took out a small device and started to record Thor as his distorted voice started chuckling.

"Fools!" Thor snapped in his different voice.

"Who?" Erik asked.

"All of you," Thor said. Electricity surged on Thor, making him wince and look down at his hands. "This one's special. Thinking we won't consume him."

"I take it you're a Norn?" Goofy guessed.

"How do we stop Ultron?" Erik asked.

"Sacrifice," the Norn answered through Thor.

"What kind?" Erik asked.

"Human, of course," the Norn answered.

"We're gonna do everything we can to prevent that," Goofy said, defiance in his voice.

Electricity surged on Thor again, making him wince while stepping back.

"And we count the dead, and they are legion!" the Norn continued before stepping back with another surge. "The stone draws you all to its brilliance..." He pointed up at Erik. "And you to your end."

"The stone from Loki's Scepter?" Erik asked.

"It was never his!" the Norn snapped. "It is of the six. The infinite six."

"The Infinity Stones?" Goofy asked, remembering the words of that creepy, white haired guy they almost gave the Power Stone to. "There's an Infinity Stone in the scepter?"

"Finally, this one shows some brains," the Norn chuckled. "They cannot be joined, nor kept apart."

The Norn exclaimed as electricity surged over it again. It then looked up and spread out Thor's arms.

"This one fights us!" the Norn yelled. "Sustenance! We will have sustenance."

The Norn reached forwards, and Goofy and Erik stood up.

"This stone?" Erik asked.

"The Mind Stone that rules perception, that molds the mind's monsters," the Norn told them. "It carved out your will, Erik, and still you don't see?"

"That stone was what manipulated you to Loki's will," Goofy assessed, looking at Erik.

"If Ultron has the Mind Stone..." Erik started.

"No," the Norn said with a chuckle. "Your enemies are closer." The Norn exclaimed once more. "God fear Father's ambition..." It exclaimed again with Thor's hands still spread out. "And brilliance only blinds."

Electricity surged over Thor once more, making the Norn exclaim. Thor was seeing his dream with Heimdall and part of Asgard again. He then got a close up of the scepter as the gem flew out of it.

"We must stop!" Erik exclaimed.

"Thor!" Goofy yelled to their friend.

Thor exclaimed as his vision continued. The gem of the scepter shattered into a yellow stone. A grey orb shattered to reveal a purple stone. The Aether transformed into a red stone. The Tesseract shattered into a blue stone. The four stones gathered together in space as yellow smoke gathered behind them, forming the appearance of a gauntlet. He then saw the yellow stone in the forehead of the red face he had seen before.

"You're too late!" the Norn laughed at them. "Dark! Dark as the moon!" It exclaimed once more. "Embrace this black."

Thor then stepped forwards and jumped out of the water, landing on the rock roughly.

"Thor?" Erik asked as he and Goofy kneeled down next to the panting god.

"Are you okay, Thor?" Goofy asked.

Breathless, Thor managed to get out, "They don't see what's coming."

Goofy and Erik looked at the water with raised eyebrows before looking down at the blonde.

"What'd you see?" Goofy asked.

"Lots," Thor admitted, looking up at Goofy. "Along with something to our advantage..." *** _1_ ***

* * *

While Goofy and Thor went to get Erik, the day continued semi-normally for the group at the Barton Farm. It was pretty late at night, with everyone gathered in the main area, the living room connected to the dining room and kitchen. Laura smiled at Lila as the little girl walked away from the couch and started to the table where Natasha was sitting down at.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Fury assessed. "My contacts all say he's building something." Lila showed Natasha a drawing she made, which made the woman smile. "The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked as Fury grabbed a cup out of the sink.

"Oh, he's easy to track," Fury admitted. "He's everywhere." He moved over to a counter and set down his filled glass next to some toast. "The guy is multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit."

Riku and Cloud smirked as Sora frowned in confusion, not understanding the joke. Clint and Mickey walked into the kitchen/dining room to join the others as Laura and the kids went towards the staircase.

"It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though," Fury admitted as Tony threw a dart at a board in just the other room.

"Is he still going after launch codes?" Tony asked.

"Yes, he is," Fury said, spreading butter on a piece of toast. "But he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony said, at which Kairi and Riku frowned.

"Well, I contacted our friends at Nexus about that," Fury admitted, breaking the toast in his hands.

"Nexus?" Sora asked as he, Donald, and Steve looked up at Fury in confusion.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo," Bruce explained. "Every byte of of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth."

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked.

"He's fixated on the missiles," Fury continued as Tony collected the darts he threw off of the board. "But the codes are constantly being changed."

"That's not good," Vanitas commented, looking at Fury, and narrowing his eyes at the toast in his old friend's hand.

He suddenly saw a younger Fury with both eyes and a bandage on his head, saying, " _If toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it._ " And yet, the toast Fury had just taken a bite out of and was holding in his hand, he had cut diagonally. Vanitas looked up at Fury with a contemplative expression. Sure, people's tastes can change after what's now been about 30 years, but then he also saw a man with green skin change himself into a normal pale skinned man. Could that mean...

He was drawn out of the flashback by Tony asking Fury, "By whom?"

Then Tony jumped as a dart flew into the board, missing his face by about an inch. He looked at the board in surprise before shooting a frown at Clint, who shrugged his shoulders with a smirk.

"Parties unknown," Fury answered.

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.

"Ultron's got an enemy," Fury said. "That's not the same thing."

"Depending on how you look at it," Cloud commented. "I mean, anyone that's a problem for him has gotta be good for us."

"You've got a point, Strife," Fury admitted. "That's why I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo," Tony said, walking through the doorway with the beads to join them in the room. "Find our unknown."

Natasha sighed out and looked down. "Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that," she said, looking up at Fury.

"I do," Fury pointed out, drink in one hand and toast in the other. "I have you."

The team shared looks.

"Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere," Fury admitted. "Ears, everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world."

During his speech, he walked into the center of the room.

"Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission," Fury continued. "And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

He sat down at the table.

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha commented, looking at the sandy haired Captain.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve said, looking at her as she smirked.

"Anyone else notice this was nicer than the last talk we all had together?" Sora asked, remembering that large argument back in the SHIELD helicarrier lab.

"Well, this time there wasn't a creepy ass staff pissing us off even more than we already were," Vanitas pointed out.

"Dude, she just said he doesn't like that kind of talk," Riku said, smiling as he gestured to Steve.

"I hate you all," Steve said plainly as the others smirked.

"So, what does Ultron want?" Fury asked the group, changing the subject back to the matter at hand.

"To become better," Steve answered, looking among the group. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony said. Bruce walked out from his corner and looked down at the drawing of a butterfly Lila had given Natasha. "The human form is insufficient. Biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

Natasha looked at Bruce, Vanitas, then Tony. "When you three programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," she told them.

"They don't need to be protected," Bruce said. "They need to evolve." He looked up as everyone looked at him. "Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Fury asked.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?" Bruce asked.

That's when they started to put things together.

"The Cradle, and the vibranium..." Vanitas assessed.

"Oh, shit," Tony said.

"What?" Donald asked, curious. As were Sora, Mickey, Kairi, Riku, and Cloud.

"The Cradle can be used to replace tissue," Tony explained.

"So, with a little help from this homicidal bot, and some vibranium, they can use it to make a body," Vanitas assessed.

That made the others' eyes widen.

"A body made out of the strongest metal on Earth..." Mickey said in thought.

"Oh, shit," Cloud repeated Tony's earlier words.

Hours later, after some sleep for preparation, the rest of the group had gotten back into their hero suits and were grabbing their gear again.

"I'll take Natasha, Clint, Sora, Donald, Cloud, and Riku," Steve announced, slipping his shield onto his back.

"All right," Tony said as he and Vanitas walked into the living room. "Strictly recon. V and I'll hit the Nexus. We'll join you as soon as we can."

"Hopefully we'll find something there," Vanitas commented as the three of them started towards the door.

"If Ultron's really building a body..." Steve started.

"He'll be more powerful than any of us," Tony finished Steve's thought as they stopped in front of the door. "Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot."

"He'd be impossible to stop," Vanitas said.

"You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me," Steve commented.

"And I miss the days when my biggest problems were fighting Heartless on other worlds and forgetting to report back to my Master," Vanitas said. "We've all got some hell."

Fury then walked up next to them as he slipped on his jacket.

"I'll drop Banner, Kairi, and Mickey off at the tower," he told them. "You mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?"

"She's all yours," Tony said. "Apparently. What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know," Fury admitted. "Something dramatic, I hope."

He then promptly left the room and the house.

"I missed him," Vanitas admitted with a smirk.

Down the hall, Laura and Clint smiled at each other as he walked out in his gear. Cloud walked out back in his black robes with one bare arm, but paused and looked away out of courtesy when he saw husband and wife stepping closer to each other.

"I'm gonna finish reflooring that sunroom as soon as I get back," Clint promised her.

"Yeah, then you'll find another part of the house to tear apart," Laura said with a smirk.

"No," Clint denied. "It's the last project. I promise."

They shared a kiss before they separated and Clint started down the hallway with Cloud.

"I'll make sure you get back to your family," Cloud promised Clint.

"Oh, yeah?" Clint asked.

"I've seen what it's like when people never see their loved ones again," Cloud admitted. "You're gonna get back to them. Luckily, I've got this."

He patted his Buster Sword on his back.

"Shit, that'll be an interesting fight to see," Clint commented. "Maybe I should have paid attention when you were fighting that Sephiroth dude." *** _2_ ***

Just as the sun started to rise far in the distance, the team going after Ultron climbed into the Quinjet. They piloted it up and flew it out into the distance, ready for whatever was next...

* * *

Tony and Vanitas made it to the Nexus Internet Hub in Olso, Norway, and followed the scientist's instructions to the main computer system. While Vanitas did his usual thing of pretending he knew what was going on with the equipment, Tony went to work.

"A hacker who's faster than Ultron?" Tony asked himself as Vanitas and three scientists, one man and two women, watched. "He could be anywhere, and as this is the center of everything, I'm just a guy looking for a needle in the world's biggest haystack."

"That won't be easy," Vanitas commented.

"How do you find it?" one of the female scientists asked.

"It's pretty simple," Tony admitted. "You bring a magnet."

Vanitas smirked at his friend's analogy. He smirked again as Tony sang to himself, "I'm decrypting nuclear codes, and you don't want me to."

Tony tapped a few more keys and announced, "Come and get me."

"Let's go, mofos," Vanitas announced.

* * *

Back in Seoul, Ultron had Helen open up the Cradle, showing the progress with the vibranium forming into a male body with a pink face.

"It's beautiful," Helen said, observing on a screen as the machinery continued its work. "The vibranium atoms aren't just compatible with the tissue cells, they're binding them. And SHIELD never even thought to..."

"The most versatile substance on the planet, and and they used it to make a Frisbee," Ultron commented, viewing the body being constructed in the Cradle. "Typical of humans."

He walked to the nearby desk, where one of his bots was at work sending a small laser into the blue jewel in the scepter.

"They scratch the surface and never think..." Ultron turned up the laser, shattering the jewel and revealing the Mind Stone. "To look within."

Sephiroth was a little upset that he now couldn't use the scepter to get Cloud under his control, but he shrugged it off as he watched the Stone rise up into the air in amazement. It was beautiful. Helen watched as Ultron caught the Mind Stone in his metal hand. He then walked to the Cradle and placed the Stone at the forehead placing of the vibranium body being constructed, which sent yellow lines through the head and neck.

Within hours, the Cradle was nearing the end of its process, and the Maximoffs finally arrived at the base, joining them in the lab. The pinkish vibranium body within had finished its construction, and there were just a few things left to be done.

"Cellular cohesion will take a few hours, but we can initiate the conscious stream," Helen said, connecting wires from the Cradle to the back of Ultron's head. "We're uploading your cerebral matrix... now."

The process began, and Pietro observed part of the room behind them while Wanda realized something.

"I can read him," she announced. "He's... dreaming."

"I wouldn't call it dreams," Helen commented. "It's Ultron's base consciousness. Information noise. Soon..."

"How soon?" Ultron asked. "I'm not being pushy."

"You could've fooled me," Sephiroth commented, raising an eyebrow at his cybernetic partner.

"We're imprinting a physical brain," Helen continued as Wanda crept towards the Cradle. "There are no shortcuts. Even with your magic gem..."

Wanda drowned out Helen's words as she looked inside the vibranium body, seeing the image of a large blast happening on the Earth. She screamed in pain as she took her hands off of the Cradle, making Ultron stand up in surprise. Pietro went to comfort his sister as she then peeked a glimpse into Sephiroth's head, seeing what his plans were, surprising her even more. She panted in and out as she looked at the two that had recruited her and her brother.

"How could you?" Wanda asked, horror on her face. "How could either of you?"

"How could we what?" Ultron asked, blandly.

"You said we would destroy the Avengers, make a better world, what it should be," Wanda accused them.

"It will be better," Ultron told her.

"And it will be what it should be," Sephiroth added.

"When everyone is dead, and the world is returned to darkness?" Wanda asked.

"That is not..." Ultron started. "The human race will have every opportunity to improve."

"And they'll improve well enough when their hearts are returned to how they should be: filled with darkness," Sephiroth added. *** _3_ ***

"And if they don't?" Pietro asked.

"Ask Noah," Ultron told the Sokovian Enhanced.

"Who?" Sephiroth asked.

"You are madmen," Wanda accused. *** _4_ ***

"There were more than a dozen extinction-level events before even the dinosaurs got theirs," Ultron rationalized. "When the Earth starts to settle, God throws a stone at it. And, believe me, he's winding up."

"Why do you think I ended up here?" Sephiroth added with a smirk.

"We have to evolve," Ultron continued. During his next words, he placed his hands on the closed Cradle and looked at it. "There's no room for the weak."

"And who decides who's weak?" Pietro asked as Wanda used her powers to break Helen out of the spell from the Mind Stone.

"Life," Ultron answered with a chuckle. "Life always decides."

His attention was then drawn to the sound of some aircraft approaching the building.

"There's incoming," Ultron said as the twins shared a hug, guilt on their faces for helping the two. "The Quinjet. We have to move."

"That's not a problem," Helen said, fully broken out of the spell and going behind the computer.

She then paused the process of the transfer, making Ultron groan in annoyance. He shot a laser out of his hand and hit her in her chest, knocking her to the ground, blood spreading across her clothes. Pietro used the opportunity to grab Wanda and speed the both of them out of the lab and the building.

Ultron stammered before calling out, "Wait, guys!"

The other bots and Sephiroth then went to work, taking out the other scientists with lasers and Sephiroth's Masamune sword. He slashed through the scientist with glee while Ultron looked at the Cradle again.

"They'll understand," he said. "When they see, they'll understand. I just need a little more time."

With the last of his words, he detached the wires from the back of his head, breaking the connection to the Cradle. Sephiroth chuckled as he slid his sword back onto his back, ready for the fight he knew was coming up...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 And there's the last deleted scene of the movie. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda glad they're done. They were always kinda hard to blend together, but I always felt like they were worth including
> 
> *2 I think it's obvious at this point who the plan for who'd be Clint's other universe partner in this story is now
> 
> *3 Yeah, he's sounding like Ansem, but after that explanation Cloud had given the guys in his warning of Sephiroth when we first meet him in KHII, I think it's accurate to say that he's pretty much exactly like the prick
> 
> *4 What a shame, having her say that and Vanitas not being there to make a reference to the show 😂


	9. Chase Through Seoul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ultron attempts to escape with the Cradle, but the team manages to stop him from doing so, even if things don't go so smoothly...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Over the last six days, I've been playing Birth By Sleep Final Mix again after seeing Everglow's BBS Chronicles on YouTube. I forgot how much I enjoyed the original version of that game from when I was a kid. Also, NOW I figure out the formulas to unlock all the Finish Commands. Good going, me 😅

Ultron then got the gear ready with Sephiroth, and the two started to lead the way out of the lab, with the two Ultron bots following behind as they rolled the Cradle after them.

Outside, the Quinjet had dropped Steve, Sora, Donald, and Riku on a rooftop before Clint, Cloud, and Natasha piloted it up further into the air. The four on the roof walked across the floor and observed the Research Lab out in the distance.

"Two minutes," Steve instructed. "Stay close."

They navigated through the city and reached the building quickly, running into the partly destroyed lab and towards the downed form of Helen. Luckily, she was still alive.

"Dr Cho!" Sora exclaimed as he and Steve kneeled down next to the woman while Riku and Donald kept watch with their weapons raised, just in case.

Steve took a rag and attempted to do something against the burn mark from Ultron's laser across her chest.

"He's uploading himself into the body," Helen told them as she breathed in and out uneasily.

"Where?" Steve asked.

She didn't have an answer, so Steve started to stand up.

"The real power is inside the Cradle," Helen said, getting Steve to stop and look down at her again. "The gem, its power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark."

"First, we have to find it," Sora pointed out.

"Donald, give her a Potion," Steve instructed.

Donald pulled one out and handed it to Helen, who nodded in thanks and told them, "Go."

"Did you guys copy that?" Steve asked the team in the Quinjet.

"We did," Clint assured as he and Cloud piloted the ship across the sky.

"I got a private jet taking off across town," Natasha announced as she worked on the ship's computer. Clint looked down at the street below them, quickly eyeing a truck with a large white storage moving tank in its back. "No manifest. That could be him."

"There," Clint said, seeing the side of the truck, showing the logo from the Research Lab on the side. "It's a truck from the lab."

"So that's gotta have the Cradle inside," Cloud assessed as the truck went down a road that led onto a bridge.

"Right above you, Cap," Clint continued. "On the loop by the bridge. It's them." He used the computer to scan the truck to see what was inside. "You got four with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver."

"Negative," Steve announced as he and his group climbed up a ladder onto a higher bridge. "That truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron."

He, Sora, Riku, and Donald went down the bridge, finding themselves over the highway loop, giving them a good view of the truck driving on the road, coming close to them. Mentally preparing themselves, they ran across the bridge and jumped off of it, landing on the roof of the large truck, garnering Ultron and Sephiroth's attentions inside.

"No, no, no, no," Ultron muttered in annoyance. He moved to the Cradle while Steve climbed down onto one of the back doors. "Leave me alone!"

He fired a laser out of his hand, knocking both doors open and making Steve exclaim as his back hit the side of the truck. Sora and RIku helped him by swinging the door back into place, and Steve looked inside the tank at the cyborgs, Angel, and the Cradle. Another blast knocked the door down, and Steve up into the air. He landed roughly on the door, part of it attached to the camper, and the rest of it dragging roughly on the road.

"Well, he's definitely unhappy," Steve quipped. "We're gonna try to keep him that way."

" _You're not a match for him, Cap_ ," Clint told him.

" _And none of you are a match for Sephiroth_ ," Cloud added.

"Barton, Strife, thanks," Steve quipped.

With lots of struggling, Steve started his way up the door while Sora, Donald, and Riku climbed into the tank, just in time to see Ultron disconnect the wire from his head again and once again pausing the process. Ultron turned towards them, but then Sephiroth stepped between him and the trio.

"A shame Jordan isn't here," Sephiroth commented, grabbing his Masamune. "I wanted to kill him first."

"Yeah, we got that," Riku commented, standing in his battle stance with his Keyblade.

Sephiroth rushed forwards and grabbed Riku, forcing them both out of the truck before he jumped up onto the roof, dragging Riku along the way. Sora and Donald jumped back up onto the roof, going after Sephiroth since he had their friend. Sephiroth threw Riku down onto the top of the tank, but his attention was drawn to Sora and Donald behind him. He smirked and pointed his sword at them.

"You never do learn, do you?" Sephiroth asked.

"Not really," Sora admitted.

"It's what makes us special," Donald added.

Sora, Donald, and Riku charged at Sephiroth swinging their weapons, while Sephiroth raised his Masamune to intercept their attacks.

Meanwhile, Steve had climbed up the sliding door to the tanker on the truck, but Ultron used the magnet mechanism in reverse to knock Steve back, sending him onto the front windshield of a car behind them. Steve managed to parkour from the car to a garbage truck, onto the roof of the truck.

Just in time, as the trio fighting Sephiroth weren't really doing that well. Sephiroth had easily intercepted all their weapon strikes with his Masamune. He had also kicked Donald aside, sending him dangling off the side of the truck. Sora and Riku ended up getting the exploding dark orbs right into their backs and legs, making them fall to the ground pretty roughly.

Sephiroth raised his sword to finish off Sora, but Steve rushed in with his shield, finally taking it off his back and raising it in defense of his friend. The sword slammed into the shield, causing sparks to burst out. Steve exclaimed in distress as he felt the force of Sephiroth's blade against his shield, while Sephiroth raised an eyebrow.

"I'm impressed," he admitted. "Not many people are strong enough to hold back the might of my blade. Especially not humans."

Steve exclaimed as he pushed back the shield, forcing Sephiroth to step back.

"Well, I'm no mere human," Steve remarked, raising his shield in preparation.

Sora and Riku stood up and stood ready with him, having healed themselves with Hi-Potions. Sephiroth smirked and rose up into the air with his wing flapping. Ultron then flew out of the cab from behind and up towards the roof.

"You know what's in that Cradle?" he asked, raising his hand.

The three had just enough time to turn around and raise their weapons in defense as Ultron blasted lasers at them. Luckily, their weapons intercepted the blasts, even if they were a little rough.

"The power to make real change," Ultron answered his own question. "And that terrifies you."

"I wouldn't call it a comfort," Steve quipped.

"Especially not when the person deciding that change is someone like you," Riku added.

Steve threw his shield at Ultron while backflipping to dodge the cyborg's lasers. Steve caught the shield but then ducked as some of the dark orbs from Sephiroth flew at his head. Riku deflected a laser from Ultron before blasting Dark Fire at the approaching Sephiroth before he could slash his Masamune. The fire had little effect, so Sora intercepted the sword with his Keyblade while Steve hit the One Winged Angel in the face with it. Steve and Riku then turned towards Ultron, who had just landed on the truck roof. Steve threw his shield at Ultron at the same time Riku threw his Keyblade, and Riku paused to finally help Donald up. *** _1_ ***

The shield was jabbed into Ultron's chest, not deeply, but he easily knocked the Keyblade aside.

"Stop it," Ultron snapped, annoyed.

He then shot his lasers at Steve and Riku, knocking them back onto the front of the car. Along with Donald, who was still in Riku's hands. Ultron knocked the shield out of his chest, and it landed unceremoniously in the street.

Steve had fallen down in front of the truck windshield, dangling from a hook. The cyborg driving burst its fist through the window as it tried to punch at Steve, who climbed along the other parts of the truck to try to get out of its reach.

Riku and Donald, meanwhile, had re-summoned their weapons and went after Sephiroth as Ultron kicked Sora in his knee-pit, causing him to fall to the ground again. Sora dodged Sephiroth's sword and rolled down onto the roof of another car, where he ignited Limit Form. Riku and Donald yelled out as they started attacking Sephiroth from behind, who only smirked as their weapons hit his back.

During all of this, Clint and Cloud had flown the Quinjet over the city and were following the truck through the air from a prepared distance. Natasha went into the back part of the jet and opened up the gears, already prepared.

"Got a window," Clint told her.

"This is gonna be badass," Cloud commented.

"Very," Clint agreed as he prepared to open the bottom of the Jet. "Four, three... Give them hell."

Clint hovered the ship down so it was just over the street and opened the compartment on the bottom. Natasha rode her motorcycle out of that compartment and started driving it down the street after the truck. She maneuvered it through traffic and soon found Steve's shield in the road, still rattling from the fall a bit.

"I'm always picking up after you boys," Natasha muttered to herself.

She leaned down and picked up the shield as she kept driving her motorcycle.

" _They're heading under the overpass_ ," Clint informed her over the transmitter. " _We've got no shot._ "

"Which way?" Natasha asked as she kept weaving through traffic.

"Hard right," Clint said. He looked down to check her progress. "Now."

She made the right turn and went down an alleyway, surprising lots of people as she went down the street to follow the truck.

Back on the truck, Sora had used Strike Raid against both Sephiroth and Ultron before Donald blasted both with Blizzard. Sephiroth just chuckled as the attacks hit him before he kicked Donald right in the chest, knocking the mallard into Sora. Sephiroth started to swing his sword, but Riku caught it with his Keyblade and exclaimed as he pushed back against the Angel. Steve kicked Sephiroth in the side before rushing at Ultron, wrapping his arms around the cyborg from the behind. *** _2_ ***

Natasha continued to weave through the streets after the truck, as the group's luck started to change. Ultron knocked Steve down onto the truck top. Donald blasted the cyborg with Fire and Thunder, but it had little effect. He exclaimed as he jumped back to dodge Ultron's laser blast, before he then had to duck under Sephiroth's Masamune blade. Sora attacked Sephiroth with Ragnarok, sending out the many little projectiles while Riku blasted him with Dark Fire. Sephiroth then disappeared, and three copies appeared in the air around the off world trio.

"Crap," Sora, Riku, and Donald muttered in disappointment.

While they defended themselves from the copies, Steve was grabbed in a choke hold by Ultron and forced to the edge of the truck, just as Natasha drove under the truck on his side. She threw the shield up, which attached to Steve's arm with the help of the magnets in both the shield and his suit forearms. Steve then attacked Ultron with his shield and forced the android to the ground. He then threw the shield at the Sephiroth copies, making them all disappear as the shield hit each of them.

Not to be deterred, Ultron used the mechanic on his wrist to tear some road out of the ground in front of Natasha. She slowed herself down by pushing the bike up onto the front wheel, staying in place until the piece of road fell down as the truck went some distance away. She kept driving her bike after the truck, and soon found herself dodging laser blasts from the Ultron Bots in the back. Of course, since that wasn't easy, she had to start driving up a nearby staircase, yelling for people to get out of her way.

On top of the truck, Sora (with his clothes back to normal) and Donald jumped onto Ultron's back and tried hitting him with their fists, to no avail. Ultron raised his fist at Steve to fire lasers, which Riku tried hitting with his Keyblade to stop, but it didn't work. Instead, Ultron blasted him back onto the driver's part before blasting Steve off of the truck and onto another car.

As Steve recovered, Ultron used the mechanic on his wrist to raise up the road, and Steve had to do more parkouring to get through the crashing cars safely. He managed to dodge the cars being knocked through the air before he used another one to leap up onto the truck again. He managed to roll along the truck top and faced Ultron with his shield.

"Come on!" Steve exclaimed, blocking Ultron's attacks while also making sure he didn't hit Sora or Donald.

Meanwhile, Natasha continued driving along the stairs that formed a walkway between buildings, trying to regroup with the others.

"Clint, Cloud, can you guys draw out the guards?" she asked.

" _Let's find out_ ," Clint commented.

Just as Ultron's fist connected with Steve's shield again, the truck drove out into the open and the Quinjet appeared above them.

" _Get off the son of a bitch!_ " Cloud snapped at Sora and Donald.

The friends exclaimed as they dropped off of the cyborg and landed roughly on the truck top, giving Clint the perfect opportunity to shoot the Jet's guns at Ultron. Ultron looked up at the jet in annoyance, and the two bots in the truck flew up and after it as Clint flew it further up into the air. One of the bots started messing with the rail gun while the other went to the windshield, getting the two mens' attentions.

"I can't tell if that was smart or dumb now," Cloud commented.

Luckily, Clint managed to spin the jet with one of the side propellors, sending the Ultron bots off. They kept flying after the Quinjet, though, since they weren't badly damaged.

"I knew I should have borrowed V's guns," Cloud commented.

"What would you do?" Clint asked. "Tie yourself to something, dangle out of the ship, and fire in _very_ uneasy circumstances?"

"Yes," Cloud answered very simply, like he did stuff like that every day. Probably because he did do stuff like that every day.

Not that unaware to the team, the news had started to report the events that was happening with the truck. What was unaware to the team was that the Maximoffs had seen that report on a nearby television, quickly garnering their surprised attentions.

Meanwhile, the truck was careening through the streets and soon ended up on a road near a train. Natasha rode her bike closest to the train as she went after the truck, where the team was still battling Ultron. Steve threw Ultron off of the truck where he crashed through a column, but the android recovered with his jets and flew at the Captain and Sora. He tackled the two off of the truck and right through a train wall, where they crashed into the floor and surprised everyone inside.

"Steve!" Donald exclaimed.

"Sora!" Riku called out.

Then Sephiroth finally reappeared and tackled them off of the truck, right into the train with the others.

As the Quinjet kept flying up through the air, the two Ultron bots flying after it turned away and started flying back down to the truck.

"They're heading back towards you," Clint informed them. "So whatever you're gonna do, do it now."

"Please hurry," Cloud added.

The groups recovered on the train, and Steve threw his shield at at Ultron, where it bounced off, hit Sephiroth in the face, then flew back into his hand. Ultron flew at them, Steve dodged it by jumping forwards, and Sora and Riku swung their Keyblades at the cyborg. That didn't have much of an effect, so he blasted lasers at them, which got intercepted with their Keyblades and Steve's shield. Of course, it still knocked them down onto the ground.

Steve raised his shield in defense as Sephiroth started to swing his Masamune at him, tearing through the walls and poles of the cramped train car. Steve was able to deflect the sword with his shield, and Riku and Donald blasted the Angel with their own forms of fire, distracting Sephiroth enough for Steve to get back up.

With all the guards gone from the truck, Natasha rode her motorcycle after the truck, which still had the back doors burst off to reveal the inside mechanics.

"I'm going in," she announced. "Boys, can you keep them occupied?"

Steve panted. "What do you think we've been doing?"

She then heard Sora exclaiming as Sephiroth raised him up and slammed him into a wall.

Natasha rode her motorcycle to the truck and climbed up onto one foot, just as a water truck was careening down the road towards it. She jumped off her bike and into the truck, leaving the truck to get crushed by the water truck.

"I hope she has insurance on that thing," Cloud said to Clint.

As Natasha went to the Cradle and unsuccessfully tried to do a user override, the two Ultron bots flew under the tank and grabbed onto it, having rockets convert out of their faces and blast towards the ground. They flew up into the air carrying the tank, knocking Natasha to the floor and leaving the driving part of the truck to crash in front of a police barricade that had been set up.

"Okay, package is airborne," Clint announced as he flew the Quinjet after the bots carrying the tank. "We have a clean shot."

" _Negative,_ " Natasha denied. " _I am still in the truck._ "

Clint started to ask, "What the hell are you..."

" _Just be ready,_ " Natasha told them. " _I'm sending the package to you._ "

"How are we supposed to take that thing?" Cloud asked.

"Uh, you might wish you hadn't asked that," Natasha commented as she started unhooking the belts holding down the Cradle.

Back on the train, the team still wasn't doing that well against Ultron and Sephiroth. The cyborg had forced Steve against the wall next to the hole, and was repeatedly punching him with Donald underfoot. Sora and Riku had their Keyblades raised and were defending against Sephiroth's sword at once, uneasily. But then, Pietro appeared and sped into the cyborg and the Angel, knocking them off of the team. Ultron and Sephiroth looked at the teen in surprise, but then were surprised when parts of the walls covered in red energy blocked their way off from him. They looked over their shoulders to see Wanda in the back, her hands raised with energy around them.

"Please, don't do this," Ultron begged.

"What choice do we have?" Wanda retaliated.

"Fuck this," Sephiroth said, pushing Ultron aside.

Sephiroth started towards Wanda and raised his sword, but then Pietro sped towards him and started punching him, turning at each loop so he could run at the Angel again to punch him again. Sephiroth absorbed each attack until he reached out with his free hand and grabbed Pietro by the neck. He lifted the struggling Sokovian up and raised his sword, but then Wanda released energy that held his arm in place. He struggled visibly as he tried to slash Pietro with his sword.

"Firaga!" Donald exclaimed, sending a blast at Sephiroth.

The fire exploded, forcing Sephiroth back a bit and making him release Pietro, who gasped for air. Riku then slashed his Keyblade at Sephiroth, Sora ignited Limit Form again and used Ars Arcanum to its fullest extent, then Steve hit the Angel in the face with his shield. Sephiroth then disappeared. *** _3_ ***

"Descend..." they heard his voice start to say.

Riku stuck his head and arm out of the hole and blasted Dark Fire at Sephiroth, stopping the attack. Sephiroth then growled in anger and disappeared from sight.

"Well, he's gone," Riku commented.

"Let's finish this prick, then," Donald announced, waving his staff at Ultron.

Ultron then blasted his lasers to the front of the train, sending them past Pietro and through the front windshield. He then burst out of the other side of the train as it shook, causing most of the group to fall down.

"We lost him and Sephiroth," Steve announced as he and Sora started moving towards the conductor's station. "Ultron's heading your way!"

They moved to the small room to find the hopefully just unconscious conductor against the busted console.

"Oh, no," Sora said, fear in his voice.

Steve looked up with him out the front window to see that they were coming to the end of the train line.

Back in the Quinjet, Clint announced, "Nat, we gotta go." As Ultron started flying towards them.

Clint had the Jet going in reverse, with the back door open for the Cradle to fall in. Natasha cut the last belt holding down the Cradle and attached a bomb to the wall of the tank behind her. She then slid the Cradle across the tank and held on as it fell out, through the air, and into the open doors of the Jet. But then Ultron appeared and grabbed her by the ankle, pulling her out of the Jet as the tank blew up.

"Nat!" Clint exclaimed.

"Natasha!" Cloud yelled, getting out of his seat.

He tried standing up, but ended up falling to the floor since the ship was still going down.

"Okay, that was a mistake," Cloud admitted.

Meanwhile, the train had broken through the rails and was starting to go through the yard, tearing up the ground and anything it came across.

" _Cap, you see Nat?_ " Clint asked.

"If you have the package, get it to Stark!" Steve yelled.

"That's what Dr. Cho said!" Sora added. "Now go, man!"

" _Do you have eyes on Nat?_ " Clint repeated.

" _We're not leaving anyone behind,_ " Cloud added.

"When did you grow a heart?" Donald asked with a chuckle.

" _Shut up, Donald,_ " Cloud snapped.

"Go!" Steve ordered.

So, they had the back doors of the Quinjet close and started flying out of the city.

"Damn it!" Clint exclaimed.

"Fuck!" Cloud yelled.

Back on the train, Steve faced the rest of the team, specifically the Maximoffs.

"Civilians in our path," he announced.

So, Pietro sped out of the train and started running, grabbing anyone that was in the way of the train and moving them so that they couldn't get hurt.

"Can you stop this thing?" Sora asked Wanda. "'Cause I don't think my solution of destroying the technology will work."

"Guys!" Riku yelled.

They followed his gaze to see that the train was about to go right through a brick building.

"Hold on!" Donald exclaimed, dropping down.

Steve raised his shield in defense as a piece of the building burst through the front windshield, knocking him to the ground. Wanda then exclaimed as she sent energy into the floor, trying to stop the wheels. It certainly wasn't easy, so it was a good thing that Pietro was still moving people out of the way. After quite a bit of struggling, she managed to stop the wheels and make the train slide to a stop in the middle of a street.

People inside did not hesitate to start climbing out of the train and onto the road. Wanda ran over to Pietro, who was panting in and out as he leaned onto a desk.

"I'm fine," he assured his sister as he sat down. "I just need a minute."

"I'm very tempted to not give you one," Steve commented as the team walked over to the siblings.

"But at least you helped against Sephitoth," Sora said, taking out a Potion. "He was much stronger than last time."

"The Cradle," Wanda said. "Did you get it?"

"Stark will take care of it," Steve assured her.

With wide eyes, Wanda corrected, "No, he won't."

After a second, Steve said, "You don't know what you're talking about. Stark's not crazy."

"We were following Dr. Cho's instructions to get the damn thing back to him," Donald announced.

"Still weird to see this guy in real life," Pietro admitted, looking at Donald. "Even weirder to hear him cuss."

"Guys, we already know about your vendettas against Tony," Riku told them. "But you can't just..."

"He will do anything to make things right," Wanda interrupted.

Steve took in her words. So, to make sure things were all right, he turned away and activated the intercom.

"Stark, come in," he said. "Stark. Anyone on coms."

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it," Wanda told them. "Where do you think he gets that?"

"Give the guy the benefit of the doubt," Sora insisted. "You screwed with his head, and the head of one of my closest friends. That's why I'm not giving him a Potion."

He gestured to Pietro, who was still panting as he sat.

"How dark of you," Riku blandly commented with a good amount of sarcasm.

* * *

Back at Avengers Tower, Tony and Vanitas had arrived and met up with Bruce, Kairi, and Mickey in the lab. Clint and Cloud had already arrived and were checking over the Cradle themselves.

"Anything on Nat?" Bruce asked.

"Haven't heard," Tony admitted as Clint climbed off of the Cradle. "But she's alive, otherwise Ultron would be rubbing our faces in it."

"He's that much of a sick asshole," Vanitas remarked.

"Thank god," Kairi breathed out.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow at her.

"Like you guys just said, that means she's still alive," Kairi said.

"This is sealed tight," Clint informed the group.

"We're gonna need to access the program, break it down from within," Bruce announced.

"And I'll stand to the side and pretend I know what's going on," Mickey said.

"Hey, that's my job," Vanitas told the mouse.

"Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the Internet?" Tony asked Clint. "Old-school spy stuff?"

"There are some nets I can cast," Clint admitted. "Yeah, I can find her."

Clint went down the stairs nearby, leaving the lab. That made Vanitas and Tony pretty relieved so they could initiate their plan.

"I can work on tissue degeneration if you guys could fry whatever operational system Cho implanted," Bruce said as he went over to the Cradle.

"Yeah, about that," Tony said with his hand on the back of his head in embarrassment.

Bruce, Mickey, Kairi, and Cloud looked up at Tony and Vanitas as they continued looking embarrassed. They quickly figured out what the two were implying.

"Oh, come on," Kairi said, breathing out.

"No," Bruce denied.

"You have to trust us," Tony said as he and Vanitas walked forwards.

"Kind of don't," Bruce admitted as he backed away.

"For good reason," Cloud commented, frowning at Tony.

"Our ally, the guy protecting the military's nuclear codes," Tony informed Bruce.

Bruce looked down while Tony pulled out a remote.

"We found him," Tony finished.

"Turns out, we know him," Vanitas smirked.

Tony activated the remote and had the light system of Jarvis appear near the Cradle.

" _Hello, Dr. Banner,_ " Jarvis greeted.

That surprised Bruce, Cloud, Kairi, and Mickey, so they looked at Vanitas and Tony for an explanation.

"Ultron didn't go after Jarvis because he was angry," Vanitas started.

"He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do," Tony continued. Bruce looked at the two skeptically. "So, Jarvis went underground. Scattered, dumped for energy. But not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there until I pieced him together."

"Good UI," Mickey commented with a surprised expression.

"Very," Vanitas agreed.

Bruce scoffed as he looked down.

"So, you want me to help you put Jarvis into this thing?" Bruce asked, gesturing to the body in the Cradle.

"No!" Tony said in a reasoning voice. "Of course not."

"We wanna help _you_ put Jarvis into this thing," Vanitas replied, gesturing to Bruce and the Cradle.

Bruce looked around in disbelief as Tony shrugged his shoulders with a smirk.

"We're out of my field, here," Tony admitted. "You know bio-organics better than anyone."

"And you just assume that Jarvis's operational matrix can beat Ultron's?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, how do we know this won't blow up in our faces, Stark?" Cloud asked, rightfully angry.

"Because Jarvis has been beating him from inside without even knowing it," Tony told them as he walked around the Cradle to Bruce. "This is the opportunity. We can create Ultron's perfect self without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality. We have to."

" _I believe it's worth a go,_ " Jarvis announced.

Vanitas and Tony gestured to Jarvis.

"What better UI for the cyborg than one that's been programmed to help people without even knowing he was doing it?" Vanitas pointed out.

"I hate to admit it, but that's a good point," Kairi admitted.

"I'm in a loop!" Bruce exclaimed, raising his hands in surrender. "I'm caught in a time loop. This is exactly where it all went wrong."

"We know," Tony admitted as they walked up to Bruce. "I know. I know what everyone's gonna say. But they're already saying it."

"We're mad scientists," Tony continued, placing a hand on Bruce's shoulder. "We're monsters, buddy. We've gotta own it. Make a stand."

"Even after that mistake, there's gotta be a moment where we're right, you know?" Vanitas pointed out. "Even if I'm pretty much your guys' Igor." *** _4_ ***

Bruce looked down, sighed out, and shook his head.

"It's not a loop," Tony assured him. "It's the end of the line."

Bruce sighed out in resignation as he looked at the Cradle.

"But if this doesn't work, I'm gonna kill you with my sword," Cloud told Tony.

"Understandable," Tony admitted. He looked at Vanitas. "Get the equipment and try not to drop the brain, Fritz. We've got work to do..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I figured it was finally time for the Marvel characters to start fighting the KH characters with them. Even in the previous stories, there wasn't much of that happening, but now, with it being fucking Sephiroth, all bets are off, mofos
> 
> *2 I made sure to check the Limit list for the Form for authenticity, since here Sora still has his abilities from II. The attacks are Sonic Rave, Last Arcanum (Which is pretty much just Ars Arcanum), Strike Raid, and Infinity, which is pretty much just Ragnarok. I have no idea why they renamed those two, since they're named normally in all future adaptations
> 
> *3 This moment of the split up team all fighting together against Sephiroth is just a prelude for what I got planned for the finale in Sokovia
> 
> *4 When you think about it, he is pretty much the Fritz to their Dr. Frankensteins. (I'm referring to the 1931 version, part of the reference at the end)
> 
> Wow, this chapter had a lot of action. The team arriving in Seoul to the start of the discussion with the Maximoffs is only seven minutes long


	10. The Vision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team reunites at the tower to witness... a birth?

Deep in Sokovia, the castle base of HYDRA was working overtime in the secret underground lab to construct a veritable army of Ultron's underling robots. There were stations all around a bottomless pit that went deep into the ground, all of them working on their own to build the androids. The already constructed androids were at work building large pieces of machinery as part of the plan Ultron had. Ultron himself was at what could be interpreted as ground floor, constructing something different with Sephiroth close by and Natasha unconscious just a few feet away.

"I don't understand why we have to let her live," Sephiroth said with his arms crossed in annoyance.

"She will be the first witness of what is to come," Ultron said. "When this planet is given its chance to evolve with our encouragement."

"That's one way to put it," Sephiroth commented. "Really, we're just wiping out lots of innocent people. I like that."

He smiled to emphasize how on board to the plan he was.

"Good, then stop complaining about keeping her alive," Ultron said. "Just be ready to kill the others when they get here."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm already prepared," Sephiroth assured him. "I just wish they weren't so slow. I want to take out those idiots who gave Cloud his false hope. They just prolonged the inevitable. He will turn to the darkness. And once he does, I'll be there to take him, and together we'll help you make this world what it should be: its original form of darkness."

"Right," Ultron muttered as he kept working.

"Oh, don't worry," Sephiroth told him. "With my magic, the darkness won't hurt you."

 _Much_ , Sephiroth thought with a sinister inward chuckle.

"Thanks," Ultron said. "And you don't have to worry, either. When we're given a chance to evolve, the strongest of us will band together. You won't be hurt, either."

 _Much_ , Ultron thought.

The android was able to see out of the corner of his eye as Natasha stirred awake and started looking around.

"I wasn't sure you would wake up," Ultron admitted, never taking his eyes off of the machine he was working on. "I hoped you would. I wanted to show you." He looked towards her. "The Angel and I don't have anyone else."

"This doesn't mean you're not in danger, though," Sephiroth informed her, frown on his face with his arms crossed.

As the villains talked, Natasha backed towards a stone wall next to her and started pushing up so she was sitting against it.

"I think a lot about meteors," Ultron told Natasha as he went back to working. "The purity in them. Boom! The end. Start again. The world made clean for the new man to rebuild. I was meant to be new."

He looked up and closed his eyes.

"I was meant to be beautiful," Ultron said.

He looked at Natasha with open eyes again.

"The world would have looked to the sky and seen hope, seen mercy," Ultron continued. "Instead, they'll look up in horror because of you."

He started walking towards Natasha.

"You've wounded me," Ultron snapped. "I give you full marks for that. But, like the man said, what doesn't kill me..."

A metal hand then burst through Ultron's face, and Natasha started crawling backwards away in fear. The hands then ripped Ultron's body apart, revealing the newly constructed Ultron in its entirety.

"...Just makes me stronger," Ultron finished through his new face.

Natasha breathed in and out as she looked up at Ultron, just now realizing she had backed up into a cage. Ultron grabbed the cell door and slid it shut, sealing her inside, but also giving her a good view of everything through the bars.

"Not what I would have done," Sephiroth admitted.

"We all know what you would have done," Ultron sighed in annoyance as he moved on. *** _1_ ***

* * *

Back in Avengers Tower, different members of the present team were doing their own work. Tony, Vanitas, and Bruce went to work to transfer Jarvis into the vibranium body they had stolen from Ultron, while Kairi, Mickey, and Cloud stood just outside of the room watching, refusing to help so that they wouldn't be held accountable in case things went wrong. In case things did go wrong, Cloud also kept a hand on his Buster Sword on his back, although he didn't plan on using it on the android.

Meanwhile, Clint was following Tony's suggestion by sitting at a computer station next to an old time-y radio. Luckily, Natasha was able to use a gear she had to send out a signal, which made Clint smirk as he picked it up. He quickly used the computer to trace the signal to Sokovia. Specifically, the HYDRA lab.

"This framework is not compatible," Tony admitted as he worked on the computer.

"The genetic coding power is at 97%," Bruce told Tony from his point below.

"So we don't have a lot of time to dilly dally," Vanitas commented as he and Bruce started walking down the Cradle.

"You have got to upload that schematic within the next three minutes," Bruce informed him.

And then Steve suddenly walked into the lab next to them with Sora, Riku, Donald, Pietro, and Wanda behind him, all of them looking around in surprise. Steve, however, was shooting Tony, Bruce, and Vanitas a stern look.

"I'm gonna say this once," he announced.

"How about 'none-ce'?" Tony asked.

"Shut it down!" Steve announced.

"Nope, not gonna happen," Tony said, moving more quickly as he moved to another computer.

"What is going on?" Sora asked.

"Doesn't matter," Steve told the brunette. He looked at Tony. "You don't know what you're doing."

"And you do?" Bruce asked. He gestured to Wanda. "She's not in your head?"

"I know you're angry," Wanda admitted.

"Oh, we're way past that," Bruce rebutted. "I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade."

"And at this point, I'd be okay with it," Vanitas added, crossing his arms.

"Banner, after everything that's happened..." Steve started, stepping forwards.

"It's nothing compared to what's happening!" Tony exclaimed.

"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda snapped at him as Pietro shrugged his shoulders in annoyance.

"This isn't a game!" Steve snapped.

Pietro then sped around the entire lab and turned off the computers and detached the wires from the Cradle. He stopped next to the surprised and shocked Bruce and Vanitas.

"No, no," Pietro said, tossing the detached wire to the ground. "Go on. You were saying?"

The devices started to power down.

"You little shit!" Vanitas exclaimed, raising a fist in preparation.

But Wanda was faster. She saw Vanitas's sling on the ground nearby and saw that his machete handle was sticking out of it. She used her powers to make it fly through the air and go right through Vanitas's stomach to stop him from attacking her brother. She remembered hearing about how Vanitas couldn't bleed or feel things, so she expected it to be a minor inconvenience. *** _2_ ***

Unfortunately, she didn't know about Vanitas's returned life force, so she and Pietro looked at the ravenette with wide eyes as he yelled out in pain. Vanitas looked down at his own machete through his stomach, which was bleeding quite a bit, then looked back up and yelled in pain once more.

"This happened to me twice, should have known the third time'd be when the mess was over!" he exclaimed through the pain.

"I... I thought you couldn't feel or bleed!" Wanda exclaimed.

"Yeah," Vanitas said, trying to keep his cool despite the fact he was just impaled. "That's not a thing anymore!"

"Shit!" Riku and Donald simultaneously exclaimed in surprise while Sora tried not to puke.

While Vanitas raised his hand to push his machete out, Pietro was surprised as he heard a gunshot, and saw the bullet traveling up next to him as he engaged his speed. Then the glass floor he was standing on shattered from the bullet, making him fall at normal speed.

"Pietro!" Wanda exclaimed as her brother fell into the computer room downstairs.

The Sokovian winced as he landed and looked up at Clint, who had lowered the gun and stepped on his leg to keep him down.

"What?" Clint asked. "You didn't see that coming?"

The computer then beeped as the power loss to the Cradle started to become a critical problem.

"I'm rerouting the upload," Tony announced.

Steve, who had been as surprised at Vanitas's impalation as everyone else, sprung into action with his shield. He threw it towards the computer, and it ended up bouncing off and bouncing along the other parts of the Cradle. Tony quickly attached a glove to his hand and blasted at Steve, knocking the soldier back.

"I don't even know who's side we are on now," Kairi muttered to Cloud and Mickey.

"Uh, maybe we can be on the side of people giving V a Potion," Cloud said, wincing as Vanitas pushed his machete back though his stomach and onto the floor. "Pretty sure you're not supposed to do that."

Donald cast Curaga on Vanitas to heal his wound while Tony had the chest plate of his armor attach itself. Wanda started to gather energy in her hands, but Bruce moved behind her and put her in a headlock.

"Go ahead, piss me off," he challenged her.

Steve lunged at Tony and punched him in the chest plate, knocking him back. At the same time, Tony blasted Steve with the chest repulser, knocking Steve back. Steve fell down stairs while Tony fell through a window. Wanda used that moment to turn around and push back Bruce with energy while Clint came up with his gun raised.

Steve quickly recovered, but then everyone was surprised as Thor burst in through the window carrying Goofy on his back.

"Howdy, fellahs, we're back!" Goofy greeted as he climbed off of Thor.

Everyone watched as Thor jumped up onto the Cradle, then raised Mjölnir up into the air, gathering electricity with his hammer.

"Wait!" Bruce yelled over the pandemonium to try to stop the god.

Thor then lowered Mjölnir down to the Cradle and sent the electricity into it. This ended up causing a power overload that finished the transfer process within seconds. Everything was then quiet as Thor stood up and looked down at the Cradle with the others.

Then the top exploded, sending everyone down and Thor flying across the room, making him drop Mjölnir as glass hit the floor with them. From the Cradle, the metal body with red and silver linings burst through and landed on his knees, looking down.

Everyone soon stood up and observed the metal man in contemplation as the smoke cleared, giving them a good view of him as he stood up and observed them in turn.

"...Maybe we should have given him clothes," Vanitas said after a second of silence to try to break the tension.

It didn't work.

The man then lunged towards Thor, who grabbed him out of the air and threw him through the window, out of the lab and into the living room. The throw was so strong he started being flipped towards the window that gave them a view of the city below. But the man managed to stop and hover just in front of the window, looking down at New York.

Thor lunged into the living room with his hammer in hand, and Steve followed with his shield, along with Riku with his Keyblade. But then Thor held up a hand to stop them, letting the cyborg man keep looking at the city for a bit.

Thor set Mjölnir down on a table as the rest of the team started entering the living room, while the man slowly flew towards them as he made a dark green suit appear around his body. Cloud, of course, had one hand on Tony and the other on his sword in preparation.

"So, what's the verdict?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah, there's kind of a lot on line here," Tony admitted, throwing a cautious look at Cloud.

The cyborg floated down next to Thor and looked over the team.

"I'm sorry," he said in Jarvis's voice. "That was... odd." He looked at Thor. "Thank you."

Thor sighed out, then the cybernetic man made a gold piece appear on his chest, which then had a golden cape spread down behind him.

"Thor, you helped create this?" Steve asked, not really happy.

"I've had a vision," Thor told them. "A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its center is that."

He pointed at the Mind Stone in the cyborg's head.

"What, the gem?" Bruce asked.

"It's the Mind Stone," Thor told them. "It's one of the six Infinity Stones. The greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."

"The fourth one we've encountered so far," Vanitas commented.

That garnered a lot of the teams attentions.

"You know about these stones?" Steve asked.

"A bit," Donald admitted.

"We helped ensure the safety of the Power Stone with the government of a planet called Xandar," Goofy said. "Before that, it was used to destroy an entire fleet. It was a really bad day."

"The Aether, that red sludge that Maleketh dude wanted," Vanitas started. "It was the form of the Reality Stone, affected from the Big Bang to this reality."

"The Tesseract is the corporeal form of the Space Stone," Sora said. "It's used for teleportation from one side of the galaxy to another."

"We learned from a creepy ass dude with hair that looked like he was electrocuted every day for twelve years," Vanitas informed them. "He made it clear, these stones, there's nothing else in the universe that can match their powers. Maybe not even Keyblades."

Steve looked at Thor. "Then why would you bring..."

"Because Stark is right," Thor interrupted him.

"Oh, it's definitely the end times," Bruce commented.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron and Sephiroth," Thor told them.

"Not alone," Vision agreed.

"Why does your Vision sound like Jarvis?" Steve asked.

"We reconfigured Jarvis's matrix to create something new," Tony said as he and Vision started to walk towards each other.

"Okay, maybe I won't end up killing you, Stark," Cloud said, finally taking his hand off of his Buster Sword.

"Good. I don't wanna be an accomplice to murder," Mickey admitted.

"Whatever the case, I think I've had my fill of new," Steve commented as Vision and Tony walked past each other.

"You think I'm a child of Ultron," Vision assessed, looking at Steve.

"Can you blame us?" Kairi pointed out.

"You're not?" Steve added.

"I'm not Ultron," Vision assured them. "I am not Jarvis. I am... I am."

"Shit," Vanitas said, impressed. He leaned into Tony. "Congratulations, it's a boy."

"I looked into your head and saw annihilation," Wanda pointed out, walking towards Vision.

"Look again," Vision suggested, looking at Wanda with an expression of silent convincing.

That made Clint scoff.

"Her seal of approval means jack to me," he announced, walking past the still burnt couches to join the others.

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone," Thor announced. "And they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side..."

"Is it?" Steve asked Thor. He looked at Vision. "Are you? On our side?"

Vision glanced down. "I don't think it's that simple."

"Well, it better get real simple real soon," Clint said in a threatening voice.

"Dude, I don't think you stand a chance against one of these Infinity Stones," Cloud muttered to Clint.

"I am on the side of life," Vision announced. "Ultron isn't. He will end it all, with Sephiroth by his side."

"What's he waiting for?" Tony asked.

"You," Vision answered.

"Where?" Bruce asked.

"Sokovia," Clint announced. "He's got Nat there, too."

The group started getting closer to Vision.

"If we're wrong about you," Bruce started. "If you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..."

"What will you do?" Vision softly asked.

"Do you really wanna know?" Riku asked in an attempt to be intimidating as Vision looked up. Whether or not it worked was up for determination.

"I don't want to kill Ultron," Vision admitted.

He started walking past Bruce.

"He's unique and he's in pain," Vision said as he continued past Thor. "But that pain will roll over the Earth. So, he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the net."

"If only it was as simple to stop him as it was to stop the MCP," Sora commented.

"We have to act now," Vision continued, stopping and looking over the group. "And not one of us can do it without the others. Sephiroth, he's an easy target, but he's incredibly powerful. We need to work together to finish him off, as well. With Mr Strife performing the finishing blow."

"Sephiroth did say that he's apparently the only one who can eliminate him," Donald pointed out.

"I can do it," Cloud assured them.

"We'll be there to help ya along the way," Mickey assured him.

Cloud nodded gratefully at the mouse, then shared nods with members of the group. However, most of the Avengers, along with Riku and Kairi, still stared at Vision with skepticism.

"Maybe I am a monster," Vision admitted, looking down at his hands. "I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are..." He turned around. "and not what you intended."

He picked something up from off the table, and even though everyone was looking at him, he did it in a way that masked what he picked up.

"So, there may be no way to make you trust me," Vision admitted. "But we need to go."

He lifted what he had picked up to Thor, showing everyone that it was Mjölnir. Thor frowned in surprised confusion while everyone that knew the properties of the hammer went wide eyed in surprise. Thor took his hammer with surprise as Vision moved past him. The male members of the team looked at the god, still in shock over what just happened.

"Did that just..." Kairi started to ask.

"Yep," Riku said, who had rubbed his eyes to make sure when he saw Vision holding the hammer.

"Right," Thor said, holding Mjölnir in both hands, a little embarrassed. He walked up to Tony and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Well done."

"There's something else," Wanda said as Thor walked after Vision out of the room. She looked at Cloud. "I also saw into Sephiroth's head."

Cloud, Vanitas, Riku, and Sora all winced.

"I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy," Cloud admitted. Then he paused. "Although, actually, Sephiroth is my worst enemy, so I don't think that works here."

"What'd you see?" Riku asked.

"He's in pain," Wanda said. "He needs you and your darkness for his own personal reasons."

"What kind of reasons?" Vanitas asked.

"He's dying," Wanda answered, surprising the group. "He has given into darkness so much that his life depends on it. He used it like a drug, and now he's paying the consequences. The only thing that keeps him alive is darkness of another. And he chose you because you come from the same world." *** _3_ ***

"How long does he have?" Cloud asked.

"Four years," Wanda admitted.

"That's too long to be on the run," Cloud commented. "Who knows how many people he'd hurt just to get to me? We have to kill him. Today."

"How can we do that?" Steve asked. "Keyblades, swords, shields, magic, even bullets don't work on him."

Then Vanitas got a feeling in the back of his mind. Having gotten the sense to grab his sling before they left the lab, Vanitas crouched down and reached inside for his spell book. He stood up as he flipped through the pages, soon finding the one the feeling told him about.

" _NOW_ I find this spell!" Vanitas exclaimed as he read the page in front of him.

"What is it?" Goofy asked.

"Sephiroth, like the Organization pricks and Ansem, has some kind of special spell of darkness that protects them from my weapons, including my guns, acting normally to them," Vanitas reminded the group. "A member of the Organization pissed me off, so I shot him in the face six times with a shotgun, and he walked away without a scratch. But, this spell, it can grant ranged weapons the ability to eat through those spells, so the'll react normally. And guns technically count as ranged weapons." *** _4_ ***

"How many guns can you apply it to in three minutes?" Steve asked.

"Six," Vanitas told him as he scrolled the page. "This incantation takes about 30 seconds to read."

"Six minutes," Steve announced. "Get what you need."

"One more thing," Vanitas said, placing down his book and moving over to Kairi. "Things are gonna get dicey, and you won't be able to count entirely on my infinite ammo sniper rifle."

"So?" Kairi asked.

"So, you're gonna need a little more oomph," Vanitas admitted.

He placed his pointer and middle fingers to his temple and closed his eyes, concentrating. Vanitas moved his fingers from his temple and a little grey circle came out, surprising most of the team. Kairi was so shocked she didn't even register it for a bit as Vanitas placed his fingers to her temple and the grey circle went into her head.

"What did you do?" she asked, surprised.

"You'll see in four seconds," Vanitas said, pulling back a fist in preparation. "Now, I'm gonna try to punch you in the face, and you're gonna defend against me."

"What?" Kairi asked, very confused.

But then Vanitas launched the punch. Without even realizing what she was doing, Kairi quickly sidestepped the punch, grabbed Vanitas's wrist and pulled him in. She then rammed her elbow into Vanitas's stomach, then her palm into his face, making him exclaim as he stepped back.

"Man, your hand is hard!" Vanitas exclaimed, as he covered his face with his hand. "Now I feel bad for Sora if you ever give him a handy."

"Wh-what just happened?" Kairi asked as some members of the team watched in surprise.

"I shared some of my memories with you," Vanitas answered. "I gave you about three years of martial arts training."

"You were able to do stuff like that in three years?" Sora asked, also surprised.

"No, I was able to do it in six months," Vanitas corrected his doppelgänger. "Imagine what she'll do with the stuff from year three."

"Uh..." Kairi said, still reeling from the surprise. "Th-thanks."

"No problem," Vanitas said, picking back up his spell book. "Now, let's get ready."

As they prepared, Wanda and Cloud ended up near Vanitas.

"Two automatics will definitely work for this guy," Vanitas told Cloud. "Lots of bullets fired within the course of a second. Fucker won't know what hit him."

"I get one," Cloud reminded him. "I have to take him down."

"You got it," Vanitas assured him.

"Hey," Wanda said, getting both boys to look up at her. "I'm sorry for what I did to you both. I'm sorry I placed you in a mental hell, and I'm especially sorry I impaled you."

"Eh, it's no big whoop," Vanitas assured her with a wave of his hand.

"It is!" Wanda insisted. "I could have killed you!"

"But you didn't," Cloud pointed out. "You tried, but you failed."

Wanda couldn't understand how they were so nonchalant about that. So, Vanitas put down the spell book and the Micro Uzi he was holding.

"The first time I met Thor, I shot him six times with a shotgun," he said.

"First time I met Sora, V, Donald, and Goofy, I was tricked into giving into my darkness and tried to kill them in an arena," Cloud added.

"I've tried to kill Riku three times," Vanitas said. "Hell, most members of this team have tried to kill each other."

"Yeah, it's pretty much how we communicate half the time," Cloud added.

Vanitas frowned.

"You know, maybe we should work out a better way to talk through our differences," he pointed out.

"Yeah, maybe," Cloud agreed with a nod of the head.

"Uh, yeah, that's probably a good idea," Wanda pointed out as Pietro strolled next to them. "Still, I am sorry, Vanitas."

"Eh, I kicked your brother's ass and ogled you, so you impaled me with my own machete," Vanitas said, waving his hand. "We're even."

"But if you guys are gonna work with us, you gotta understand that we work together," Cloud told them.

"Of course," Pietro assured them as Wanda nodded her head.

Vanitas stood up.

"That means you need to understand that Tony didn't kill your parents," he told them.

The twins said nothing as they looked down.

"Look, I know that especially won't be easy," Vanitas admitted. "But you gotta know that he still regrets the ignorance of who his weapons were being sold to to this day. Hell, he became Iron Man because he was caught in an explosion by one of his own missiles. He does this, not just to protect the world, but to atone for his sins and try to help the people he accidentally hurt. His first outing in the suit was even taking down a terrorist coop using his weapons to enslave and kill people in some city."

"Oh, damn," Cloud said, impressed. He had not heard some of that until this point.

"So maybe instead of focusing on the horrors brought on from the past, maybe try viewing him on his actions today," Vanitas suggested.

"Like what?" Wanda asked.

' _Well, for starters, he made you your future boyfriend_ ,' Vanitas internally smirked, as he had seen visions of Wanda and Vision together romantically just five minutes ago.

"We're about to go to your old home and try to save as many people as we can there, while stopping a crazy android and Angel from destroying the world," Vanitas said instead. "I think that can be a good start."

Pietro nodded his head.

"You're all right, Vanitas," he said, holding out a hand.

"Call me V," Vanitas said, taking his hand and shaking it.

' _This guy's probably not gonna like it when his sister and the robot get together_ ,' Vanitas thought as the twins walked off to prepare.

' _Probably not_ ,' Cloud thought, which surprised Vanitas as he heard it.

' _How much did you hear?_ ' Vanitas thought, looking at Cloud with a confused frown.

"More than I'd have preferred," Cloud admitted out loud. "You've really gotta get a handle on your powers."

"Workin' on it," Vanitas said, moving to grab the remains of his robes.

The team started getting ready in their own ways. Clint, dressed in his suit with the low coat, went into his gear closet and started grabbing mechanics for his arrows and attaching them to his suit so they'd be easy to grab. He took out a picture of his family and looked at it one more time, just in case. Pietro grabbed Adidas shoes as he and Wanda put on fresh clothes from inside the closet, with him tossing her a red leather jacket. Thor and Vision stood ready at the end of the landing pad, looking out at the city as they chatted in preparation. Tony was in his lab uploading a new UI to his suit, settling on one called FRIDAY.

Donald, Goofy, and Mickey got new earpieces, with most of the group from the Gummi ship working together to fit Mickey's in his ear. It wasn't exactly easy. Riku and Sora grabbed some arm guards for just in case and slipped them on, which, also concealed small bits of gear, like grappling hooks. Kairi slipped on a weapons harness that Vanitas gave her, allowing her to carry the infinite ammo sniper rifle, and a .44 Magnum in her hip holster. Cloud had dressed back in his black clothes and rested his sword on his back.

"All right, remember what I told you with handling this thing," Vanitas said, handing Cloud a Winchester 1887 shotgun.

"Aim for his balls, then his head," Cloud said, attaching the shotgun onto the back of his robe.

"Okay, you added the 'balls' part, but good boy," Vanitas said, patting the blonde on the shoulder.

Vanitas was distraught that his robes were still mostly torn up, but he managed to figure out a way to fix them up. The brown straps were mostly torn, but the one with his crest with the X was still intact, so it was still able to hold on. The sleeves of his robes were gone up to the elbow, so now he had just short sleeves that left his forearms bare. He was at least glad the bandana was still intact, so he could still slip it on over his mouth and nose in battle, like he had been doing since he got the outfit. *** _5_ ***

Once they were all done gearing up, half of the team met up in the living room.

"No way we all get through this," Tony admitted. "If even one tin soldier is left standing, we've lost. There's gonna be blood on the floor."

"I've got no plans tomorrow night," Steve assured him with a smirk.

"We're all prepared for the worst," Riku said. "We know how these things go."

"I got first crack at Ultron," Tony said. "Iron Man's the one he's waiting for."

"That's true, he hates you the most," Vision commented nonchalantly as he walked past the group.

Tony just looked forwards with an impassive look.

"Gotta love how blunt he is now," Vanitas said with a smirk.

The team climbed into the Quinjet and sat ready in their seats. Even if Pietro was a little confused by the earpiece at first, he slipped it on, anyway.

"Ultron and Sephiroth know we're coming," Steve announced. "Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire."

"But that's never stopped us before," Sora added as he stood next to Steve and looked around at their friends.

"And that's what we've signed up for," Steve continued. "But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace. And that's not gonna happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done. We find out what Ultron's been building, we find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us."

Steve paused as he looked down.

"Ultron thinks we're monsters," he reminded them. "That we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him."

"It's about whether he's right," Sora finished. "So let's prove the prick wrong."

The group nodded their heads solemnly.

"Never thought you'd be one to add a quarter to the swear jar," Riku commented to try to break the tension.

"Damn," Vanitas commented. "Two seconds before I could say it."

That caused some laughs to erupt among the group, which was a nice distraction from the battle they were about to go headfirst into...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I don't really know much about Sephiroth personality wise, so I'm just going off the basic that he's obsessed with darkness, which is what we were kinda shown in his limited screen time in the games. So, I'm just making him a stereotypical villain who enjoys murder and the torture of others. But I think it can work for him due to how powerful he is. Plus, in this I'm imagining him voiced by his OG voice actor, Lance Bass. I just find it funny, imagining one of the guys from N-SYNC saying this kinds of shit.
> 
> *2 Yeah, with everything that's gone on so far in this story, it hasn't become common knowledge that Vanitas has his life force back and can feel things. So, people would interpret something like stabbing him as nothing
> 
> *3 That's the extra incentive for Sephiroth I was talking about. Does it work? If it doesn't, well, the story's already at the turning point so we're done with the expository stuff. Time to roll
> 
> *4 I honestly didn't think of doing that kind of spell until after I finished the KHII story. Oops
> 
> *5 This is actually gonna be the last story with the robes and the straps. They had a good run, the Winter Soldier story, the rest of Makes a New Friend, KHII, Guardians of the Galaxy Volumes I and II, and this story. That's a bit longer than the SHIELD suit


	11. The Other Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team reaches Sokovia and go to work, before they quickly run into Ultron and Sephiroth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry. Would've updated yesterday, but my laptop was updating. For some reason, it needed to be on during the whole update, so just closing it paused the process. And letting the screen sleep did the same thing. I have a weird laptop

The team arrived in the Quinjet in Sokovia as the sun was just starting to peek up over the horizon. Clint flew it past the castle, where they dropped off Thor, Bruce, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi. When they entered the castle, Thor smashed Mjölnir through a wall and led the way into the mega lab that Ultron had been using. Thor led Donald and Goofy down the stairs to search the lab while Bruce and Kairi went up the stairs to find Natasha.

Once the Quinjet landed, the Maximoffs went to work going through the city to start the evacuation process. Pietro sped through town into a police station lobby.

"We're under attack!" he yelled. "Clear the city! Now!"

He sped back out, and the people inside just shrugged him off and went back to work. So, he sped back in with an AK-47 rifle Vanitas gave him in one hand and started firing it at the ceiling. That got their attentions.

"Get off your asses," Pietro ordered, handing one officer the rifle before speeding out, soon followed by the officers, to no avail.

Mickey and Riku watched as Wanda used her mental manipulation powers, sending out red energy into the people of the city and convincing them to pack bags and start leaving. Within moments, people were filing out of their houses carrying bags, walking down the street to leave the city.

"Wow," Cloud said, watching from a perch with Clint as people continued walking out of the city. "I'm impressed."

"Same," Clint said. "And it takes a lot to impress me."

"Same here," Cloud admitted. "Kinda hope V gets his powers back and he finds out he can do this kind of stuff."

"That would come in handy with clearing the crowds at malls when doing Christmas shopping," Clint commented.

"Very much, yeah," Cloud agreed with a chuckle, imagining the very situation. *** _1_ ***

* * *

Meanwhile, Bruce and Kairi kept going through the castle towards the cell in the lab that Natasha was trapped in.

"Natasha?" Bruce called out as they got closer to the lab. "Natasha?"

"Bruce?" Natasha asked as the two of them came out the staircase.

"Nat!" Kairi breathed out in relief as they ran up to the cell.

"You all right?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah," Natasha said with a smile at the sight of him.

"I'll just..." Kairi said, turning away with a small smirk.

"The team is in the city," Bruce told her. "It's about to light up."

"I don't suppose you found a key lying around somewhere," Natasha commented, looking around the lab.

"Yeah," Bruce said, stepping back and raising up a large laser blaster. "I did."

Natasha stepped out of the way as Bruce blasted the lock with the gun, burning it through. Bruce handed the blaster to Kairi as Natasha slid the gate open.

"So what's our play?" Natasha asked.

"I'm here to get you to safety," Bruce told her.

Kairi frowned. "That's why we're here? I thought we were gonna help."

"Yeah, job's not finished," Natasha agreed.

"We could help with the evacuation, but I can't be in a fight near civilians," Bruce told her. "And you've done plenty."

Kairi turned away from them again as Bruce stepped up to Natasha.

"Our fight is over," he softly told her.

"So, we just disappear?" Natasha asked.

* * *

Back in the city, the team was working to help direct the people out of the city. Clint and Cloud were back on the ground and directing the crowds towards down the alleyways while Steve and Sora stood on a bridge and motioned for the cars to move faster down the road.

While they did that, Tony and Vanitas flew over the city to look for Ultron.

" _Your man's in the church, boss_ ," Friday told them. " _I think he's waiting for you_."

"Sounds about right," Vanitas commented.

They flew over the city towards the church and dropped down through the hole in the roof, landing inside the wrecked room. Vanitas dismissed his helmet as he and Tony looked around the church.

"Come to confess your sins?" Ultron asked.

"I don't know," Tony admitted. "How much time you got?"

"More than you," Ultron answered, stepping out behind them.

The two turned around to see Ultron in his new, much taller and more buffed out form.

"Uh..." Tony said with some uncertainty.

"Dude, have you been juicing?" Vanitas quipped.

"Little vibranium cocktail?" Tony added. "You're looking... I don't wanna say 'puffy.'"

"You're stalling to protect the people," Ultron said, looking down at the two.

"Damn, you saw right through our play," Vanitas said in a non tragic way.

"Well, that is the mission," Tony commented. "Did you forget?"

"I've moved beyond your mission," Ultron told them as he walked around the large room. "I'm free."

And with that, a large metal device burst through the ground in the middle of the room, surprising Tony and Vanitas. The device spun around sort of like a drill before the three large prongs converted down, attaching themselves to the ground.

"What?" Ultron asked, walking around the device again. "You think you were the only ones stalling?"

" _There's the rest of the vibranium_ ," Friday told them as she scanned the device, seeing that it went down over two thousand feet below the city. " _Function, still unclear_."

"Most likely nothing pleasant," Vanitas commented.

"Tony, Vanitas, this is how you both will end," Ultron told them. "This is peace in my time."

"Fuck you and your peace," Vanitas snapped.

However, that was when the army that Ultron had constructed went to work. They started bursting up out of the ground, flying out of the waters, and climbing up over walls, flying over the city and sending explosive laser blasts around.

"Crap!" Vanitas exclaimed as he and Tony flew up in the air.

"Go!" Steve exclaimed on the bridge, ushering the screaming and running citizens down the bridge.

A cyborg appeared behind them on a car and started blasting lasers, which Steve dodged with his shield. When the bot dropped down, Steve knocked it away with his shield before Sora blasted it with Blizzaga.

Across the city on another bridge, Clint and Cloud went to work as the cyborgs started climbing up and charging. Clint fired his bow or jabbed with spare arrows while Cloud slashed the robots to pieces with his Buster Sword. Riku and Mickey landed on the bridge behind them and helped by attacking the robots with their Keyblades, Dark Fire, and Pearl magic.

"Get off the bridge!" Wanda instructed civilians, ushering them off the bridge.

Clint fired an arrow at a cyborg, blowing it up in midair while another one landed and aimed its blaster. Wanda raised a shield of red energy as Mickey used his Keyblade to help strengthen the barrier, keeping the blasts from hitting the people.

"Go now!" Mickey instructed the people.

"Run!" Wanda added.

As the people kept running, a cyborg blast hit the shield directly in front of Wanda, making her exclaim as she fell to the ground.

"Hey!" Mickey exclaimed, sending out another blast of Pearl Magic.

Cloud's attention was soon drawn to Sephiroth landing right in the middle of the bridge, facing the team with his sword raised.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud called out.

"Cloud," Sephiroth said with a smirk, pointing his Masamune at the blonde. "Today is the day you finally give in to your darkness."

"I'm not gonna do anything to help you stay alive," Cloud denied.

"In fact, we're here to do the opposite," Riku said, kicking a robot away.

"You're gonna kill me," Sephiroth laughed. "Oh, I'd like to see you try."

"Done," Cloud said, holding his Buster Sword with both hands.

"You still don't get it," Sephiroth smirked. "You must never forget your past. It's the only way you can become who you were always meant to be. My perfect little drain. Now, how about I get things started by..."

Clint then shut him up by firing an arrow that embedded itself in Sephiroth's chest, right in his heart. Sephiroth looked down in confusion, right in time for the gear on the arrow to start electrocuting the hell out of him, making him cry out in pain. He growled in anger before disappearing, leaving behind the arrow.

"Thank you," Cloud said. "He was getting annoying."

* * *

Back in the church, Ultron's attention was drawn to a familiar voice calling out his name. He looked up to see Vision floating down through the hole in the ceiling, so he rose up in the air to greet his fellow android. The two floated in the air above the central device as they faced each other.

"My Vision," Ultron assessed. "They really did take everything from me."

"You set the terms," Vision reminded Ultron. "You can change them."

"All right," Ultron said, anger in his voice.

He then grabbed Vision by the shoulders, but then Vision grabbed his head, making him see into the data-scape again. Ultron fought through it and the two androids started forcing each other around the church, pushing each other into the walls. *** _2_ ***

* * *

The team went to work battling the Ultron Bots. Steve and Sora broke the ones on the bridge to pieces, Steve with his hands and Sora with his Keyblade. In the castle, Thor, Donald, and Goofy knocked robots aside with their weapons before Thor smashed them with Mjölnir and they moved on. In the town, Pietro moved towards where the cyborgs were preparing to attack the people, then prepared himself. He then rushed in with his speed and smashed them all to pieces as he moved on.

"Friday, the Vision?" Tony asked as he and Vanitas kept flying over the city.

" _Boss, it's working_ ," Friday told them. " _He's burning Ultron out of the net. He won't escape through there_."

"It's a good plan, but you just know this is really gonna piss him off," Vanitas commented.

He was right. Just as Vision finished shutting Ultron out, the villainous cyborg grabbed his head as Vision floated back, tired from the ordeal. Ultron opened his eyes and angrily lunged at Vision.

"You shut me out," Ultron said, grabbing Vision. "You think I care?"

He slammed the unconscious Vision to the ground and left him there before flying over to the device in the middle of the room.

"You take away my world, I take away yours," Ultron said in a sinister tone as he turned gears, activating the device.

* * *

Thor, Donald, and Goofy had just reached the bottom of the cave and looked up at the roof to see many gears and finished mechanics start activating. With the blue surges of energy building up at the bottom of the devices, they could figure out what was happening.

"Oh, shit," Donald commented.

Above them on the surface, the very ground started breaking apart, causing a gigantic circle of smoke to fly up in the air, surrounding part of the city and some of the city and some of the nearby woods. Thor raised his arms in defense and Donald and Goofy hid under the latter's shield as rocks started falling down onto them.

Even more pandemonium broke out as members of the team watched and reacted in shock. The very ground started to rise up, and people desperately jumped off onto the stable ground before it got too far. People stumbled as the city started to rise up into the air, dropping all kinds of debris to the ground below. Steve and Sora stood on the remains of the bridge as they looked over the edge in shock.

"Friday," Tony said in a small voice.

" _Sokovia's going for a ride_ ," Friday said.

"At least this one is good at puns," Vanitas commented with a voice just as small as Tony's.

The city continued to rise into the air due to the thrusters Ultron had attached powering up even more, causing people and debris from both rocks and shattering buildings to fall down. People on the level ground watched in horror as the city continued to rise.

"Do you see... the beauty of it?" Ultron's voice called out from the cyborgs in the city. He himself was floating in front of the mountains in the distance, watching as the city continued to rise. "The inevitability. You rise, only to fall."

During his next words, Tony and Vanitas flew around one side of the city, watching in horror as they tried to figure out something they could do.

"You, Avengers, you are my meteor," Ultron continued as the team kept listening through the cyborgs. "My swift and terrible sword. And the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me."

Wanda was behind a car, staring up at one android talking in horror, her spirit breaking a bit with each word. Cloud, Clint, and Mickey were next to her, so Clint knocked it out of the sky with an arrow. But then the android behind it just floated to where the old one was and continued the rant.

"It means nothing," Ultron continued. "When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal."

Steve and Sora looked over the edge of the bridge as they listened to Ultron's speech, but they didn't let it dishearten their determinations. Steve even punched a cyborg that was trying to sneak up behind them without even looking at it.

As the city continued to rise up into the air, the ground below it shook as debris fell down and shattered against it. Bruce, Natasha, and Kairi were starting their way out of the lab, stopping in front of the large whole of the pit and looking up as the room they were in shook, making dust fall down from the ceiling.

"We gotta move," Bruce announced.

"No shit, Sherlock," Kairi commented.

"You're not gonna turn green?" Natasha asked.

"I've got a compelling reason not to lose my cool," Bruce said.

Natasha smiled a bit and admitted, "I adore you."

She then grabbed Bruce by the side of his head and pulled him in for a kiss. Kairi, once again feeling a smidge of embarrassment, turned away as the two of them kept kissing, pretty passionately. But then it ended when Natasha pushed the very surprised Bruce over the edge, making him fall down the pit.

"But I need the other guy," Natasha admitted.

"And I thought V had relationship problems," Kairi commented.

"He does," Natasha said. "But this isn't a problem. We just need his alternate persona."

"The split personality thing can't be easy," Kairi said, looking at Natasha.

"No, it is not," Natasha sighed out.

Their attentions were drawn to the sound of roaring. They looked up just in time to see Hulk jump out of the pit and land in front of them, smiling slightly.

"Let's finish the job," Natasha announced.

Hulk let both the redheads ride on his back. Before Kairi could make the obvious joke about how it's been years since she had a piggyback ride, Hulk leaped up through the air after the city, making both ladies yell out. They yelled some more as Hulk parkoured his way up the shattering rocks and the side of the ground, before leaping up one more time. They landed in the woods, with Kairi and Natasha slipping off and landing roughly on the ground as Hulk landed on a tree, knocking it down.

Natasha breathed in and out as she kneeled up and looked up at Hulk.

"I really hope this makes us even," she told the green giant, who just grunted in response.

"Why was that fun?" Kairi asked, throwing up a Mega Potion that healed all three of them a bit.

"'Cause it was kinda like a roller coaster, and those are always fun," Natasha told her before looking up at Hulk. "Now go be a hero."

Hulk roared in agreement and started rushing towards the city. Kairi and Natasha smirked as they started running through the trees, making their own way to the city.

* * *

In the city, Pietro was speeding through the alleyways, knocking the cyborgs to pieces as he came across them before they could hurt anyone. Riku was nearby, taking out the bots with his Keyblade, using slashes, spells, or Dark Aura whenever they came close.

"You're getting better!" Mickey complimented as he slashed another bot to pieces with his Kingdom Key D.

"Practice makes perfect!" Riku commented, shooting out a blast of Thunder from his Way to the Dawn.

Meanwhile, Tony and Vanitas had flown out to way outside the city, watching as it continued to rise in the air while Friday finished scanning it.

" _The vibranium core's got a magnetic field_ ," she explained. " _That's what's keeping the rock together_."

"If it drops?" Tony asked.

" _Right now, the impact will kill thousands_ ," Friday said.

"I know I'm gonna regret asking this, but what about if it gets high enough?" Vanitas asked.

" _Global extinction_ ," Friday answered.

"I told you I was gonna regret it," Vanitas quipped as he and Tony flew back towards the city, just in time for a building to start to start to shake on the edge of the city.

" _That building's not clear_ ," Friday told them. " _The 10th floor_."

"We're on it," Vanitas assured her as he and Tony flew towards the shattering, shaking building.

They broke through the windows and burst through a door into a small apartment, finding a frightened family of three in the corner, looking at them with surprise.

"Hi," Tony said with an embarrassed smile under his helmet. He looked around the partly destroyed apartment, finding a bathtub through a destroyed wall. "Okay. Get in the tub!"

The family listened and climbed in. Tony picked the bathtub up and carried it right out of the apartment, bursting through the nearby windows.

"Whoa!" Vanitas exclaimed as they flew out of the building right before it could fall off of the city and down to the ground far below. He flew next to Tony as he kept carrying the tub, while the young boy peeked his head out and looked down with a sad expression. He told the boy, "Don't look down. Trust me, it's worse than you think."

" _I got airborne, heading up to the bridge_ ," Friday told them.

On the bridge, Steve and Sora looked up just in time to see that airborne as the cyborgs tackled them up into the air before dropping them onto some cars.

" _Cap, Sora, you got incoming_ ," they heard Tony's voice through their transmitters.

"Incoming already came in," Steve said with a wince as he struggled to get out of the windshield.

"Your guys' timing is flawless," Sora quipped in annoyance.

" _Sorry_ ," Vanitas said.

Steve and Sora looked around as the cyborgs kept flying through the city, blowing stuff up and horrifying people.

"Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely," Steve said as he and Sora climbed off the cars.

" _The rest of us have one job, tear these things apart_ ," the rest of the team heard Steve continue over the transmitter. " _You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed... walk it off_."

" _I did that a week ago!_ " Vanitas commented.

Pietro, while still a little tired from running around the entire city, followed Steve's advice and started running again, downing a Potion that Sora had given him along the way. Riku threw up a Mega Potion to heal both himself and Mickey, getting them ready for the battle to continue. Cloud did the same thing for himself, Clint, and Wanda, because there were even more cyborgs all around and just as many people they had to help. They all had jobs to do, and they were gonna fight through the exhaustion and do them...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 You gotta admit, that would be useful
> 
> *2 That's what it looked like to me in that scene
> 
> I contemplated waiting until after Clint's speech to Wanda and her helping them fight the robots with renewed vigor to end this chapter, but then I realized that the end of Steve's "Walk it off" Speech was actually a pretty good stopping point. Sorry, not sorry 🤪


	12. What SHIELD Is Supposed To Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team keeps up the assault against Ultron and Sephiroth, with a helpful ally jumping in for assistance...

As the city continued to rise in the air, the Ultron bots kept flying towards the groups of people running through the main streets to try to escape, firing lasers at them. Hulk then leaped out of nowhere and landed on a cyborg, tearing it to pieces and yelling out in anger, which didn't really have an effect on the citizens' fear. He leaped towards where more of the robots were flying, murder in his eyes.

Wanda, Clint, Cloud, Riku, and Mickey were going down an alleyway, Wanda helping an older woman run down the street while dodging the cyborgs. Clint shot a robot out of the air before Cloud leaped up and slashed another in half with his Buster Sword. Once the woman was gone, Wanda used her powers to directed it away from herself, exclaiming along the way, wincing the whole time. Riku and Mickey destroyed it with their magics before Clint jumped onto a nearby car, did a front flip over another robot, and shot it with an arrow.

Wanda looked up in horror just in time to see more androids appear above them. Mickey held up a barrier that covered himself and Riku in defense as the robots shot lasers at them.

"Go, go, go!" Clint exclaimed as he and Cloud ran towards Wanda.

"Shit!" Cloud exclaimed as they ran to a nearby building.

They leaped towards a window as the robots blasted lasers at them and crashed through the glass, landing a bit roughly on the ground. The trio winced as they moved to a nearby wall and tried to recuperate.

"Why do I keep crashing through glass?" Clint muttered to himself in annoyance. *** _1_ ***

"How could I let this happen?" Wanda asked, despair in her voice as she looked down at the floor.

Clint and Cloud checked out the window to both make sure they weren't being followed and see if Riku and Mickey were okay before looking at Wanda.

"Hey, hey, you okay?" Clint asked.

"None of those lasers got you?" Cloud asked.

"This is all our fault," Wanda said, despair still in her voice.

"Hey, look at me," Clint told her. "It's your fault, it's everyone's fault."

"It's my fault Sephiroth is here in the first place," Cloud added. "Who gives a crap?"

"Yeah," Clint agreed as he and Cloud looked at Wanda. "Are you up for this? Are you? Look, we just need to know. Because the city i-is flying. Okay. Look, the city is flying, we're fighting an army of robots..."

"A giant talking mouse, duck, and dog are on our side," Cloud added. "The other big bad of this trip is a one-winged angel, people have giant keys..."

"And I have a bow an arrow," Clint finished. "None of this makes sense."

The wall next to them then burst a bit, making two small holes appear, surprising the trio. Clint knocked an arrow and fired out the whole, most likely hitting an android since he was a very good shot. He shrugged it off like that didn't just happen and looked back down at Wanda.

"But I'm going back out there because it's my job," Clint told her. "Okay? And I can't do my job and babysit. It doesn't matter what you did or what you were. If you go out there, you fight, and you fight to kill."

"Stay in here, you're good," Cloud added. "We'll send your brother to come find you."

"But if you step out that door..." Clint continued, gesturing to the nearby doors. "You are an Avenger."

Wanda stared at the two as she took in their words.

"All right," Clint said, starting to stand up. "Good chat."

"Let's go," Cloud said, following Clint to the doors. "We've got robots and an Angel to kill."

Wanda watched as the two stepped in front of the doors and Clint grabbed a piece off of his leg guard. The piece turned out to be small arrows that extended out between each of his fingers.

"Yeah, the city is flying," Clint commented as he placed the sit arrows at once in his bow, pulling back the drawstring.

"Surprisingly, not the weirdest thing I've encountered," Cloud said.

Clint breathed out in preparation before back-kicking the doors behind them open and the two rushed out, prepared for hell.

* * *

Things had somehow gotten even worse back on the bridge. Pieces of the street were falling apart and falling towards the ground far below, taking cars with them. Unfortunately, two of the cars that were starting to lose their place still had people inside them. There were two men inside a green car and a woman screaming in fear in a red one without a top.

Steve and Sora ran towards the cars and Steve grabbed at the bumper of the red one. Unfortunately, the car broke off of the bumper and both vehicles started falling off the road, plummeting towards the ground far below with the riders still inside.

"Oh, no!" Sora exclaimed.

Luckily, Thor had just started flying up with Donald on his back and Goofy in his free arm. He went past the cars, looked up at Sora and Steve and threw Goofy up so his other hand would be free. Goofy did his usual screams as he went up through the air while Thor flew back down to the falling cars.

While Goofy landed roughly on the ground and Sora and Steve knocked aside approaching robots with the car bumper, Thor landed on the red car and helped the woman. Thor nodded a head at the woman, took her hand, and threw her back up towards the bridge. Steve jumped down and held onto one of the rebars in the street as he caught the woman with his other hand.

"I got you!" Steve assured her.

The woman looked down in fear.

"No, don't do that," Sora told her.

"Just look at me!" Steve added.

He started climbing up the road, and Sora and Goofy started helping them up back onto the road as an cyborg started down the road towards them.

" _You can't save them all_ ," Ultron's voice came out of the robot as the lady ran across the road.

Steve threw his shield, and it embedded itself in the robot's chest.

" _You'll never_..." Ultron started to say.

But then Steve activated the magnets in his shield, making it fly back onto his arm guard, sending the android flying over the edge and down the sky.

"'Never' what?" Steve quipped as the damaged robot kept falling. "You didn't finish!"

Sora and Goofy laughed at Steve's joke as the green car landed behind them, followed by Thor and Donald. Donald woozily climbed off of Thor's back as he and the god landed back on the ground.

"What, were you guys napping?" Steve asked as they started down the road.

"No, we got trapped under a bunch of rocks," Donald said.

"It wasn't pleasant," Goofy commented.

"It doesn't sound pleasant," Sora commented with a wince.

Behind them, the two men got out of the car and threw up from all the shaking around.

* * *

Back in the main street, Natasha did a front flip in front of a statue to dodge laser fire before using her electric batons to take apart a cyborg. Kairi fired her laser rifle at the cyborgs before one got close and she used the hand to hand combat Vanitas had shared with her to knock one around before blasting it with the rifle.

The group of Sora, Donald, Goofy, Steve, and Thor slowly joined them in the main part of town. Sora, Donald, and Goofy appeared by doing attacks of Unity Limit without Vanitas, slashing with their weapons, Donald shooting flares, and shooting the Drive Orbs, before they landed next to Kairi and Natasha and raising their weapons, releasing light and knocking aside multiple androids.

Steve lunged forwards spinning as he dodged the rapid laser fire of androids behind them. He landed next to Thor as a grass lawn behind them was practically filled with the robots. Steve raised his shield and Thor hit it with Mjölnir, sending the shield out and knocking it through dozens of androids before it embedded itself in one android and a car.

Thor then landed on a bridge and knocked one android up in the air and spun in a circle, knocking aside all the androids that had appeared around him, knocking one into a tanker and blowing it up, causing a large explosion that blew up multiple androids.

"That was awesome," Kairi commented as she fired at another robot, blowing up its head.

Their attention was drawn to a familiar sadistic voice called out, "Thor."

Ultron then flew at Thor, grabbing him and carrying him as he flew through the air.

"You're bothering me," Ultron simply said as he kept carrying Thor.

"Thor!" Sora called out.

"Go help him!" Donald instructed, sending up a blast of Thundaga.

"We'll take care of things here!" Goofy added, spinning around and attacking with his shield.

Sora nodded his head at his five teammates, especially Kairi, then double jumped up and started Gliding after Ultron and Thor.

The five kept up the attack, Natasha using her batons and reflexes, Steve using his reflexes and shield, Goofy spinning or lunging with his shield, Donald using his various spells and Flares, and Kairi using the tricks Vanitas shared with her and the laser rifle.

* * *

In the alleyways of the city, Clint, Cloud, Riku and Mickey were still fending off against the cyborgs. Clint fired arrow after arrow while Riku and Mickey sent out their magics and Cloud slashed with his sword. Clint jumped behind a car with Riku and Mickey and fired another arrow, this one using a mechanic that blew up.

Clint got behind the car and winced in pain.

"We're out of magic again," Mickey said, reaching into his pockets for Ethers.

"How is there a limit to your magics?" Clint asked.

"I don't know," Riku admitted. "There's just moments where when we use enough magic, we can't do anymore so we have to either let it recharge or use Ethers."

"You sound like you're video game characters constantly having to use items to help yourselves," Clint commented.

"Please," Cloud commented, raising his Buster Sword. "Like we're actually video game characters." *** _2_ ***

Their attentions were soon drawn to the veritable army of cyborgs on the other side of the alley, with the one that Clint had shot pulling the arrow out of its chest, completely unfazed by the explosion. Sephiroth then finally reappeared, floating down to join the cyborgs in front of the team.

"I am done asking nicely, Cloud," Sephiroth said, grabbing his Masamune blade.

"This was you asking nicely?" Cloud quipped.

But then nearby, the small double doors opened, and Wanda walked out with a determined expression and her eyes red. She sent out energy without even looking, picking up an android and making it blast another one. She used both hands to break the robot in half and using the top half to smash another robot against a wall. Clint popped up and shot two robots in the heads with arrows at once, then Wanda surged out energy at a trio of cyborgs, blowing up the middle one and sending the other two into walls, destroying them.

Sephiroth gave the girl a dirty expression before he charged forwards and raised his sword. But Wanda used her powers to freeze him in the air, keeping him from moving, even though she struggled due to how strong Sephiroth was. Cloud, Riku and Mickey charged forwards and slashed with their Keyblades, attacking as many times as they could in a row. Clint helped by firing multiple arrows in Sephiroth, until he looked like a silver haired pinhead.

When Wanda eventually had to release Sephiroth, the One Winged Angel floated up and shook the arrows off of his head. Sephiroth then disappeared and five copies appeared. Cloud didn't hesitate and grabbed the shotgun off his back with one hand, firing at one copy and destroying it easily. One copy slashed at Riku, but he teleported behind it and blasted Dark Aura, destroying it. Mickey jumped up spinning, dodging a sword strike and slashing through the copy, destroying it. One charged at Wanda, but she picked it up with her powers and smashed it into a wall, destroying it. Clint fired two arrows into the last copy, destroying it easily.

The team nodded heads at each other as Clint picked up the still okay arrows and slipped them back into his quiver.

"All right, we're all clear here," Clint announced over the intercom.

"We are _not_ clear!" Steve exclaimed on the other side of the city.

He hit an android with his shield before throwing it into its body, getting it caught in the upper chest.

"We are very not clear!" Steve finished, jumping up and kicking the shield.

This caused the shield to go through the android and get caught in a nearby cop car, making the pieces of the robot to fall to the ground.

"All right, coming to you," Clint informed the captain over the intercom.

Pietro then appeared next to them, picked up Wanda in his arms, and sped away, surprising the rest of the group.

"Keep up, old man!" Pietro called back to Clint.

Clint sighed out as he and Cloud watched the Sokovians run off, soon followed by Riku and Mickey. Clint then nocked an arrow and aimed it after Pietro.

"Nobody would know," he muttered.

"I'd back up your claim," Cloud promised him.

"Nobody else," Clint said with a chuckle.

The two laughed as Clint slipped the arrow back into his quiver.

"'The last I saw him, and Ultron was sitting on him'," Clint practiced his lines as they ran after their friends.

"'It was such a tragedy'," Cloud added to the joke.

"'Yeah, he'll be missed, that quick little bastard'," Clint continued. "'I miss him already'."

"'Here I was hoping he'd be able to help me with Black Friday shopping'," Cloud added with a laugh.

* * *

Things were getting worse by the minute. Ultron was still carrying Thor and brought him back to the church, dropping him through the roof. The blonde fell through the ceiling and a pillar, crashing right to the ground. Ultron followed behind, soon followed by Sora.

Sora ignited Limit Form once more and started attacking. First, he started slashing multiple times with his Keyblade before firing out Ragnorak, sending out the dozen or so projectiles into the android. Ultron used a magnet to pick up a pillar and launched it at Sora, but he dodged it by rolling out of the way. He then used Sonic Blade to start sliding at the cyborg to attack, which had as little effect as Ragnarok. Ultron kicked Sora away before sending another pillar at Thor, then grabbing the blonde and punching him in the face repeatedly, making him drop Mjölnir.

In another part of the city, police were hard at work firing guns at the armies of robots, to no avail since the bullets deflected off of their bodies. Luckily for them, Pietro and Wanda appeared, and Wanda started sending out red energy at the cyborgs.

"Hold your fire!" the lead officer yelled out.

Wanda kept blasting energy at the robots as Pietro kept running, wide smile on his face. At least until a bullet went through his arm. He stopped and looked towards the officers, seeing one that looked scared and embarrassed, since all multiple other officers were even looking at him in surprise. Pietro even shrugged his shoulders and shot the man an angry expression.

"Hey!" Mickey exclaimed, flipping as he landed next to Pietro. He sent out a green light that appeared over Pietro and healed the wound. "There ya go."

"Thanks," Pietro said as Riku landed next to the Sokovian and started blasting more of Dark Aura. He leaned next to Riku. "I'm still kinda surprised at the anthropomorphic animals on the team."

"You get used to it," Riku assured him, slashing another robot in half with his Keyblade.

Not that far away, the group of Natasha, Steve, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi were still battling the robots all around. Kairi blasted the robots with her rifle, while Donald fired a bunch of flares and Goofy spun his shield like it was the top of a helicopter, flying around in an attack. *** _3_ ***

"Romanoff!" Steve called out, throwing his shield.

The shield landed vertically into a robots back, pinning it to a car next to Natasha.

"Thanks!" she said, grabbing the shield with her right hand.

Natasha lifted the shield and raised it in defense as a robot blasted lasers at her. She then swung the shield into various parts of the cyborg's body before throwing it to Steve. He then jumped up and slammed the shield into the robot, destroying it.

At the same time as all of this, Tony and Vanitas were still circling the bottom of the city, with the former studying the thrusters with his suit.

" _The anti-gravs are rigged to flip_ ," Friday told them. " _Touch them, they'll go full reverse thrust._ " Tony gritted his teeth at her words. " _The city's not coming down slow_."

"Shit," Vanitas said. "So what can we do?"

"Not much," Tony said as he and Vanitas kept flying around the gigantic rock of the city ground. "Spire is vibranium. If we can get Thor to hit it..."

" _It will crack_ ," Friday told them. " _That's not enough. The impact will still be devastating_."

"Maybe if we can cap the other end," Tony suggested. "Keep the atomic action doubling back."

" _That could vaporize the city_ ," Friday told them. " _And everyone on it._ "

"And we don't wanna do that," Vanitas said. "We gotta find a way to get everyone out of here. Then we blow the city."

"How?" Tony asked, distraught.

* * *

Not too much longer, the city was going through the clouds, causing a gigantic fog to cover the streets. People started moving indoors as the team made their way through the smog, helping more indoors since it was getting harder to see. During this, the groups of Natasha, Steve, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy met up with the group of Wanda, Pietro, Riku, and Mickey.

"Is that my jacket?" Natasha asked, frowning at Wanda.

Wanda looked down in embarrassment at the jacket she was wearing.

"There weren't a lot of things in that closet," Kairi told her.

"We'll discuss this later," Natasha told Wanda.

"Sounds like a plan," Wanda agreed. *** _4_ ***

"The next wave is gonna hit any minute," Steve said as he helped someone inside. "Stark, Jordan, what do you got?"

" _Huh?_ " Tony asked. " _Nothing great_."

" _Understatement_ ," Vanitas commented.

" _Maybe a way to blow up the city_ ," Tony added, a grim nature to his voice. " _That'll keep it from impacting the surface, if you guys can get clear_."

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan," Steve told him.

" _Impact radius is getting bigger every second_ ," Tony said as Wanda continued helping people inside. " _We're gonna have to make a choice._ "

" _No, we can't just do something like that,_ " Vanitas announced as Natasha, Steve, Riku, and Kairi gathered in one part of the city, staring over the edge through the smog.

"Cap, these people aren't going anywhere," Natasha told Steve. "If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..."

"Not till everyone's safe," Steve told her.

"What he said," Riku agreed.

"Yeah," Kairi agreed with a nod of the head.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" Natasha asked. "There's no math there."

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it," Steve said, finality in his voice.

"Let alone the hundreds that are hiding right now," Kairi added.

"I didn't say we should leave," Natasha admitted. The three looked at her. "There's worse ways to go."

They all looked over the edge, seeing the blue sky and clouds just below them.

"Where else am I gonna get a view like this?" Natasha asked.

"She's got a point," Riku agreed. "Hell, we don't even get sights like this back home."

But then another voice appeared over the transmitter that surprised all of them.

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff," Fury said. "It's about to get better."

The four looked back out over the edge just in time to see the SHIELD helicarrier break through the clouds and float up next to the city in all of its vast grandness. Riku and Kairi's eyes nearly bugged out of their heads in surprise as they watched the helicarrier appear. Pietro sped up to the broken bridge and watched the helicarrier continue to rise before smiling and speeding to the others. People in shops gathered at windows and watched in amazement as the helicarrier continued to rise up.

" _That's_ the helicarrier?" Riku asked, incredulously as he looked at Natasha and Steve, gesturing to the large ship.

"That... is..." Kairi started, not knowing what to say.

" _Fucking awesome!_ " Cloud exclaimed over the transmitter, watching the ship from his viewpoint with Clint.

"Very, yeah!" Kairi agreed.

" _That's what I said!_ " Vanitas told them with a smirk that none of them could see.

" _Nice, right?_ " Fury asked over the transmitter as he stood at his spot in the control room while agents went to work behind him. " _Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do_."

"Fury, you son of a bitch," Steve said with a smirk.

" _Ohh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?_ " Fury teased.

"Fuck you," Kairi said with a laugh.

" _You've got quite a mouth, princess,_ " Fury commented.

" _Altitude is 18,000 and climbing_ ," Maria's voice said on the transmitter.

" _Lifeboats secure to deploy_ ," a technician that Vanitas remembered from the Insight incident announced as he worked on a computer. " _Disengage in three, two... Take them out_."

A side of the helicarrier opened up, and four large ships flew out and started flying towards the city.

"Those must be the 'life boats'," Riku said with a smirk. "To help us get out all the civilians. Shit, these guys are prepared."

"This is SHIELD?" Pietro asked the quartet with his own smirk.

"This is what SHIELD is supposed to be," Steve told the young man.

Pietro chuckled as he looked from them to the approaching life boats.

"This is not so bad," he admitted.

The life boats started attaching themselves to the open parts of the ledges, converting the side walls down into walkways, revealing possibly hundreds of seats inside each one. More than enough for the people of Sokovia.

"Let's load them up," Steve announced.

"This'll take a while," Kairi commented, sliding her laser blaster onto her back.

"So let's hurry," Riku said.

They ran to the doors to start leading people to the life boats, determined to get as many people out as they could...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I added that 'cause, well, that's the third time that's happened to Clint in the two stories he's been in. Second time this story
> 
> *2 Just a little meta moment not involving Vanitas for once
> 
> *3 Remember how I said that I've been playing Birth By Sleep again? The attack that Goofy does here is similar to his upgraded D-Link Finish attack. You'll probably have to YouTube what I'm talking about, but I feel that it'd be normal for Goofy to be able to do that move every once in a while
> 
> *4 Another deleted scene I found on an Instagram clip. I don't entirely remember how it went, so I had to improvise


	13. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team makes a final assault against all the Ultrons, and face off against Sephiroth once more...

Of course, now that the helicarrier had joined the action, it had garnered the attention of Ultron and his army. The androids quickly started flying towards the helicarrier, their blasters prepared to fire.

"Sir, we have multiple bogeys converging on our starboard flank," Maria announced.

"Show 'em what we got," Fury told her.

Maira pressed the transmitter on her ear and announced, "You're up."

As the cyborgs kept flying towards the helicarrier, one was shot out of the sky by a large gun. They looked up just in time to see Rhodey in his War Machine suit flying at them. He shot at them with the gun on his back then got in close and took them apart with blasts from his hand thrusters.

"Yes!" Rhodey exclaimed before moving on. "Now this is gonna be a good story."

He fired the gun on his back at another cyborg, but then another blast took out the cyborg.

"Yep," Tony said as he and Vanitas flew next to Rhodey. "If you live to tell it."

"You think I can't hold my own?" Rhodey asked with a scoff.

"The situation can surprise you, man," Vanitas commented. "Always have your guard up."

"We get through this, I'll hold your own," Tony told his old friend.

"You had to make it weird," Rhodey commented.

"Yeah, it sounded kinda sexual," Vanitas remarked.

He pulled out his machete and slid a rag down the blade to clean it in preparation for battle as he, Tony, and Rhodey flew towards where the robots that were blasting their lasers at them.

* * *

In the city, SHIELD soldiers walked out of the Life Boats with rifles raised in preparation just in case the cyborgs tried attacking them. Steve and Riku ran towards the nearest ship with the Sokovians behind them.

"I got about 50 to 100 more coming in after this group," Steve told the SHIELD soldiers, gesturing to the citizens as police officers helped direct them to the ships.

"Make sure they get in nice and safe," Riku added.

Natasha and Kairi helped direct citizens towards the ship on the end of the broken bridge. On the other side of the city, Clint and Cloud gestured to a ship above them.

"Down here!" Cloud exclaimed.

They ran into a building as the ship started to land. They led the people outside and they started piling into the Life Boat.

Another ship attached onto the side of a building, positioning the entrance to the side of a window with the glass completely gone. Wanda and Mickey helped direct the citizens into the Life Boat. The people barely slowed down as they ran into the ship and towards the seats.

* * *

"Number six boat is topped and locked..." the technician announced. "Or, uh... stocked... Topped... It's uh, full of people." *** _1_ ***

Maria looked up at the sound of the alarm going off. She watched as an Ultron bot started flying to the front windshield.

"Incoming!" She yelled.

The robot then crashed through the windshield and people moved out of the way as it crashed into the conference table, destroying it with an explosion.

"Oh, god!" the technician exclaimed in fear as the robot started crawling towards him.

Maria popped up quickly and started shooting it. When that had very little effect, Fury moved in and jabbed a large, sharp piece of metal through the head. He panted in and out as the cyborg slowly lost power, falling to the ground.

* * *

Back in the church, things weren't going that well. Limit Form had run out, leaving Sora back to normal, and Ultron didn't hesitate to use the magnet to throw him into a wall and knocking him onto the floor, groaning in pain. He then placed Thor down onto his knees.

"You think you're saving anyone?" Ultron taunted before punching Thor in the face again. He grabbed Thor by the neck and held him up while raising one fist in preparation. "I turn that key and drop this little rock early, and it's still billions dead. Even you can't stop that."

"I am Thor, son of Odin," Thor managed to croak out with a determined expression on his bruised face. "And as long as there is life in my breast, I am... running out of things to say!" He smirked. "Are you ready?"

Ultron looked up in realization, then turned around just in time to get knocked aside by Vision with Mjölnir, knocking him right out of the church and towards a nearby subway car. Thor stood and let his hammer float back into his hand.

"It's terribly well-balanced," Vision commented.

Thor looked at Mjölnir. "Well, if there's too much weight, you lose power on the swing, so..." He demonstrated a swing to emphasize his point, smirking along the way.

Vision then walked over to Sora and kneeled down, helping the brunette stand up.

"Are you all right, Mr. Derrik?" Vision asked, concerned for his younger (or... older?) teammate.

"Not really," Sora admitted, reaching into his pocket for a Hi-Potion.

Unfortunately, he was out of those so he summoned his Keyblade again and cast Curaga instead, causing green light to appear around his body.

"What next?" Sora asked as he felt his wounds heal.

* * *

Back at the helicarrier, Vanitas and Tony twirled to dodge laser fire from the cyborgs as they flew down over the top of the gigantic ship.

"I got it," Tony said. "Create a heat seal."

He shrugged off a blast as he and Vanitas flew down below the helicarrier.

"We could..." Vanitas started, but he had to deflect a laser blast with his machete then cut the robot he was facing in half with it. *** _2_ ***

"We could supercharge the the spire from below," Tony suggested.

" _Running numbers_ ," Friday told them.

One of the robots then crashed into one of the Life Boats that were on their way back to the helicarrier, causing a large explosion that shook it around and scared the people inside while one of the rockets on the side exploded. Vanitas and Tony flew towards the ship, but Rhodey beat them to the other robot charging at it. He landed on the robot's back and shot it to pieces with the gun on his back. Tony flew to the other side of the ship and started pushing it up, acting as a makeshift extra rocket.

" _A heat seal could work with enough power_ ," Friday told them as Vanitas flew around the ship, cutting the robots that came close in half with his machete.

"Thor, I got a plan," Tony said with a strained voice into the intercom.

" _We're out of time_ ," Thor told them. " _They're coming for the core_."

" _There's, uh... a lot of them_ ," Sora said, a slight nervousness in his voice.

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier," Tony instructed.

"On it," Rhodey told them.

"Avengers," Tony said, detaching from the ship. "Time to work for a living."

"Let's roll, mofos," Vanitas added as he and Tony flew through the air towards the church.

The two of them landed in the church, making a circle around the mechanism in the center with Vision, Thor, and Sora. They fought off the approaching robots while Steve, Donald, and Goofy burst in through the remains of the front door, smashing robots along the way. Pietro sped into the room and ripped a robot in half with his hands before running towards another entrance, one that Clint, Cloud, Wanda, and Mickey walked through.

"Are you good?" Pietro asked his sister.

"Yeah," Wanda assured him.

Tony blasted away another robot and said, "Romanoff. You and Banner better not be playing 'hide the zucchini'."

"And I thought I was the king of dick jokes," Vanitas chuckled as he slashed another robot in half.

" _Relax, shellhead_ ," Natasha said. " _Not all of us can fly_."

" _A problem we're gonna have to fix in the future_ ," Kairi commented, riding in the passenger seat of the big truck with a rig on the front Natasha was driving.

" _I'm not complaining!_ " Riku admitted, riding on the top and blasting the cyborgs they knocked away with Dark Aura. " _This is kinda fun! It's like a video game_."

They reached the church, with Natasha using the ram attached to the front of the truck to knock down the fence. They climbed out and joined the others in the church, around the center of the device.

"What's the drill?" Natasha asked as Thor knocked aside another robot and Kairi dropped the powered down laser blaster.

"This is the drill," Tony said, gesturing to the device behind them.

"If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose," Vanitas elaborated.

Two robots started entering the church through the hole a door used to be, but Hulk landed on one and broke the other in half with his hands before joining the others in the room. Behind him, Ultron floated down from high above and looked at the others as he kept floating in the air. Sephiroth reappeared and floated next to the cyborg as they looked at the team.

The team, in turn, all looked out the hole towards their adversaries. Thor held out his arms on either side and bellowed, "Is that the best you can do?"

Ultron smirked and held up a hand. Behind him, the street was practically filled with his latest robot army, charging forwards. Some stood behind him waiting on the ground while about half a dozen floated up next to Ultron and Sephiroth, staring at the team in the church.

Steve sighed out and commented, "You had to ask."

"Good going, dumb-ass," Vanitas added as he and Steve glared at Thor. *** _3_ ***

"This is the best I can do," Ultron said, holding out his arms proudly. He then gestured towards them with his left arm. "This is exactly what I wanted. All of you against all of me."

"I am... I am all of me..." Vanitas muttered, not caring if anyone heard his reference or not. *** _4_ ***

"How can you possibly hope to stop me?" Ultron asked the team.

"Well, like the old man and the Keyblade Wielder said..." Tony said. He and Steve and Sora shared a look before he looked at Ultron. "Together."

"And my goosebumps are back," Sora whispered.

"Join the club," Vanitas whispered to his doppelgänger.

Hulk roared out in defiance, and all the cyborgs started charging at the church. The team worked in tandem as they fought off all the robots, not wavering in the slightest. Steve used his reflexes and his shield, Sora slashed or stabbed with his Keyblade, Wanda kept blasting energy, Mickey kept swinging his Keyblade or blasting Pearl Magic, Thor swung or threw his hammer, Donald swung his staff or blasted Magic, Vanitas swung his machete or used fire or occasionally telekinesis, Tony kept blasting with his thrusters, along with using little missiles or lasers attached to his suit, Clint used his bow as either a staff or fired arrows from it, Cloud kept slashing with his Buster Sword, Riku either slashed with his Keyblade or shot out Dark Aura, Kairi used the reflexes she learned from Vanitas and the infinite ammo sniper rifle, both shooting and using it as a weapon, Natasha used her reflexes and the electric batons she had, Vision flew up and tore robots to pieces, Pietro kept speeding around the church taking out the cyborgs on his own, and Goofy kept spinning around with his shield. 

After a while, it seemed almost like time had slowed down as they kept fighting. Robots kept flying or charging into the church from any entrance, but the team never let up. Pietro kept running around and taking robots apart, Vision, Tony, and Vanitas flew around and blasted, slashed, or tore them to pieces, Steve jumped up spinning and threw his shield at multiple cyborgs, Thor jumped up and slammed down Mjölnir, sending out electricity that fried a bunch at once, Sora, Riku, and Mickey kept taking the robots apart with their Keyblades, Donald kept firing flares while Hulk and Goofy spun around some more, destroying every robot that came close, Cloud slashed each and every enemy that came near him in half, Kairi kept blasting the robots with her gun, and Natasha kept getting them with her batons while Clint kept using his bow.

Everyone kept at it. Thor kicked aside a robot that Cloud slashed in half with his sword. Wanda froze a flying android in the air that Tony destroyed with a laser. Thor ripped the back off of one robot while Riku blasted another one behind him with Dark Aura. Pietro sped around, continuing to smash up robots as Mickey blasted more with Pearl or his Keyblade. Clint jabbed a robot in the head with an arrow, not even using his bow, and Vanitas landed next to the man and slashed the robots around him to pieces with his machete. Thor attacked robots with both his hammer and the detached piece of another robot while Kairi used her rifle as a weapon, knocking them aside while flipping and shooting with the .44 magnum handgun. Hulk bit the head off another cyborg and spit it out while Sora and Goofy teamed up to keep taking apart the robots around them. Steve spun in a circle to knock all the robots around him away, Natasha forced the arm of another one up and shot it with a Glock, and Wanda used her powers to force more robots into the air, smashing them.

Sephiroth then charged in, and Cloud pulled out his shotgun and fired at his old enemy, but the Angel disappeared and reappeared right in front of him, kicking Cloud aside. Sora and Riku then rushed in and the both of them attacked Sephiroth with their Keyblades, but he easily intercepted their attacks with his Masamune like they were nothing. But then Pietro sped around the church, running in circles as he both took out robots and repeatedly punched Sephiroth, making the Angel wince while also annoying him.

Sephiroth raised his sword to attack Pietro, but then Natasha jumped up onto his back, wrapping her legs around his neck and moving her arm guards to Sephiroth's head, electrocuting him quite a bit. The Angel exclaimed in pain before head butting Natasha and throwing her off. He raised his sword to attack her, but got another arrow in the chest by Clint, before getting knocked aside by a laser blast from Tony.

Sephiroth was knocked into a nearby wall, and was soon picked up by Hulk, who roared in his face then punched it repeatedly. He then kicked Sephiroth across the church, who disappeared and reappeared, floating up into the air.

"Descend..." Sephiroth started.

But then Kairi shot him with her .44 Magnum, stopping the attack. Sephiroth growled in annoyance and disappeared, reappearing outside the church.

"The time has come..." Sephiroth said as purple energy appeared around him.

"Oh, I remember this," Sora said, a bit of fear in his voice.

"Perish," Sephiroth said, raising his free hand.

Large pillars of fire then shot up around the Angel, having the same effect as it did once on Sora and starting to pull the others towards it, heroes and androids alike. Wanda and Vanitas managed to use their powers to keep the team rooted in the church, so that none of them were away from the core. The ones with ranged attacks used the opportunity. Mickey kept blasting Pearl, Thor shot lighting from Mjölnir, Natasha fired her Glock, Tony fired lasers and small rockets, Riku blasted Dark Aura, and Donald kept shooting flares. Not all of the attacks managed to hit because of the fire pillars, but some made impact.

Once the pillars of fire disappeared, Sephiroth appeared in the church again, but Kairi was ready. She kicked him in the stomach, forcing him to step back. She then used the moves that Vanitas shared with her to punch, kick, or push the enemy in a circle around the core, not relenting with the attacks. Sephiroth had to admit, he was impressed that someone so young or so short could hold her own against him.

It didn't save her, though. After a few seconds, his surprise vanished and he grabbed Kairi by the neck, raising his sword. But then Sora quickly jumped into action with Limit Form. He started slashing at Sephiroth, making him let go of Kairi, before he fired out Ragnarok, sending the many projectiles into the enemy. Hulk then roared out and tried punching Sephiroth, but the Angel caught it in one hand and shot Hulk a bored expression.

But then Steve and Goofy threw their shields at the Angel's head, knocking him back with an exclaim of pain. Tony and Vision shot beams, Tony's from his suit and Visions' from the Mind Stone on his head, forcing Sephiroth to step out of the church.

"Protect the core!" Cloud announced, getting his sword ready. "I'm ending this!"

He charged out of the church, going after Sephiroth. Knowing that he'd need help, Sora looked across the church at Vanitas.

"V!" Sora called out.

"I'm on it!" Vanitas announced, dismissing his helmet and landing on the ground, running after Cloud and Sephiroth. "I got your back, buddy!"

Ultron then flew into the church, quickly meeting Vision in battle. The two grappled in the air and Ultron soon threw Vision into one of the upper parts of a wall. But Vision retaliated by blasting Ultron with a laser from the Mind Stone, forcing him back and getting Thor's attention, since he got knocked out of the church.

Ultron rolled along the ground and held up a hand in defense of the laser, but then Thor joined in by sending out lightning, Tony fired lasers from the propellors in his hands, and Sora, Riku, and Mickey joined in by sending out beams of light from their Keyblades. Between the six of them, they managed to burn Ultron significantly with their beams and cause great damage to his armor, causing the android to drop down onto his knees. The six of them stopped sending out the energy and lowered their weapons.

Ultron slowly and woozily pushed himself up onto his feet, groaning in pain.

"You know, with the benefit of hindsight..." he started to say.

But then Hulk interrupted the android by uppercutting him in the face, knocking him up into the air and sending him flying out of sight. Hulk's attention was then drawn to a small group of robots who immediately started running. Hulk roared as he ran after them.

Some of the robots jumped over the edge and started flying away.

"They'll try to leave the city," Thor announced.

"I can get some," Kairi said, rising the sniper rifle up to eye level.

"We can't let them, not even one," Tony said as Kairi fired at the robots. "Rhodey."

" _I'm on it,_ " Rhodey said, flying around the floating city towards the robots. " _Oh, no, I didn't say you could leave. War Machine coming at you! Right..._ "

But then he was interrupted by one robot exploding without him doing anything. Vision appeared and phased his arms through another robot, breaking it to pieces.

" _Okay, what?_ " Rhodey asked in confusion.

Meanwhile, some members of the team watched as Cloud and Vanitas kept battling Sephiroth in the air. Cloud and Vanitas kept slashing their swords at the Angel, but he kept deflecting them easily with his Masamune. Sephiroth deflected one more attack from them and backflipped away in the air, landing on his feet. Cloud and Vanitas landed on their feet in front of the Angel, anger on their faces.

"You've put up a good effort," Sephiroth admitted, pointing his Masamune at the two. "I was even impressed by this idiot and members of your team." He gestured to Vanitas and the group in the church. "But it's no good. I am too powerful with darkness for either of you to beat with those puny swords."

"Well, he's got a point," Vanitas admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "We can't beat him with our blades."

"That's a damn shame," Cloud agreed, remembering the plan.

He tossed his Buster Sword to the ground at the same time Vanitas tossed his machete.

Sephiroth laughed. "What? Are you two giving up?"

"Nope," Vanitas said, reaching into his sling. "We're trying a new tactic."

Sephiroth watched with a curious expression as Vanitas pulled out a Micro Uzi and a Sadu ASALT 96. He passed Cloud the Uzi and held the ASALT in his right hand, preparing it to fire.

"Really, guns?" Sephiroth slowly asked as Cloud prepared the Uzi to fire. "Well, if you want to waste your time, who am I to stop you? But there's something you should know, Cloud."

"What?" Cloud asked, keeping a blank expression.

"You remember how I said I found your friend, Zack Fair?" Sephiroth asked. Cloud nodded his head. "I pulled him down into the depths of hell and tortured him for years. I had learned about the way to absorb darkness from people before then and knew it had to be from someone from the same world as me. Zack was my first candidate. But he was too good a person, and wouldn't give in, no matter how much I tortured him. Apparently, he had learned his lesson from a time someone else controlled him using darkness."

Vanitas winced as he briefly saw Hades in Olympus Coliseum, with that very person, Zack, in front of him and Terra.

"When he told me about you, and how easily irritated you were, I was intrigued," Sephiroth added. "So, I tortured him some more to learn everything I could about you from him, then I just left him down there. He's still alive, of course, the help I had down there wouldn't grant him that luxury."

Vanitas and his friends watching could tell that this was a tactic from Sephiroth to try to get Cloud to give into his darkness out of anger, helping the Angel achieve his goal. But when Vanitas looked at his taller blonde friend, he could see that while Cloud looked like he wanted to snap, he didn't.

"Well, you just made this a lot easier," Cloud admitted with a sigh.

"I made what easier?" Sephiroth asked, confused.

"This," Cloud repeated.

He raised the Micro Uzi with one hand and started firing the gun, getting Sephiroth right in the chest. Sephiroth, who had expecting nothing to happen as per usual, exclaimed in pain as the bullets tore through his chest and stomach. He looked down to see circles appear in his torso, with dark smoke spewing out of them.

Sephiroth looked up at Cloud and growled in anger. He started to walk forwards, but then Vanitas stopped him by firing his ASALT 96, stopping the Angel in his place and making him exclaim in pain as more bullets went through him.

"How..." Sephiroth coughed out, dropping his sword and clutching his chest in pain. "Is... this... happening?"

"Simple," Vanitas answered. "Just a little spell that eats away at the darkness protecting you. Figures, I'd learn about it after we killed all the bad guys in the Organization..."

Sephiroth said nothing at Vanitas's words. He made the blue orbs of darkness appear and tried teleporting away, but the orbs quickly flickered out of existence, and he only vanished for a second before reappearing right where he was standing.

Cloud and Vanitas shared a nod of the head before raising their automatics again. Together, they fired their guns one handed, keeping up the attack and sending out dozens of bullets into Sephiroth's body at once, making him exclaim in pain even more as more and more circles appeared on his body where the bullets went through, spewing out wisps of darkness.

Eventually, the guns ran out of ammo, so Vanitas used his telekinesis to grab the Winchester shotgun and hand it to Cloud. Cloud took the shotgun and cocked it in preparation, looking at Sephiroth. Sephiroth was on his knees, panting heavily as the wounds across his body just grew in pain. He looked up at Cloud with a desperate expression, darkness falling out of his mouth in place of blood.

"Good-bye, Sephiroth," Cloud said, pointing the shotgun right at Sephiroth's head. "Enjoy hell, you sick son of a bitch."

He fired the shotgun point blank at Sephiroth's head, sending it back and making him yell out in pain. Cloud then immediately stepped back as even more darkness began spewing out of Sephiroth's bullet wounds, growing stronger by the second as the darkness flew up into the air. Sephiroth kept screaming as the darkness spewing out of him grew stronger. Soon enough, cracks started appearing along his body, spewing out more darkness.

"Uh... you might wanna put these on," Vanitas said, taking out two pairs of sunglasses and handing one to Cloud.

Cloud complied and they watched as more and more cracks appeared along Sephiroth's face and chest. The team watching from the church looked away as the darkness coming out of Sephiroth grew more and more, quickly figuring out what was going on. Sephiroth bellowed out in pain one last time before his body seemingly shattered in an explosion, sending out so much darkness that it made a pillar that sent out wind and shook the ground as it flew up into the air.

Within moments, the darkness started to concede, and just a few seconds later, all that was left was a small crater with cracks along the ground nearby. The only evidence left of Sephiroth was his slightly burned Masamune at the bottom of the crater.

"Holy shit!" Donald, Riku, and Kairi exclaimed in amazement.

"You guys did it!" Sora called out in congratulations.

Vanitas and Cloud turned away from the pit and looked towards their friends, their hair brushed up from the explosion and black smog on their faces.

"Yeah, and it wasn't easy," Vanitas commented as they took off their sunglasses, showing that the parts of their faces covered by the glasses were free of smog. "That dude was tough."

"Kind of expected a huge explosion to happen during my final fight with Sephiroth," Cloud admitted, wiping his face to get the smog off. "Just didn't think it'd happen when he died."

"Well, we fullfilled that requirement," Vanitas said, smoothing his hair back to normal. "The guns might have been a little anticlimactic, but the giant explosion seemed about right."

"I can't believe it," Cloud said, looking at the crater with a slight tone of wistfulness in his voice. "That son of a bitch is finally gone..."

"But we're not done yet!" Steve called out, getting the attentions of all the team members that weren't already in the church. "Come back in, we gotta plan out our next step."

"Hell, yeah," Cloud agreed, nodding his head in an appreciative manner at Vanitas.

He ran with the others back into the church, and after crouching down to retrieve his weapons and put them back in the sling, along with something else, Vanitas followed him.

"We gotta move out," Steve announced. "Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, some of us will sweep for stragglers."

"I'll help with that," Sora said.

"All right," Steve said, nodding a head at Sora as he looked at the others. "We'll be right behind you."

"What about the core?" Clint asked, looking at the core next to them.

"I'll protect it," Wanda announced. She looked at Clint and Cloud, who were in turn looking at her. "It's my job."

They nodded their heads at her.

"Nat," Clint said. "This way."

"I can get a car, if anyone wants a ride," Vanitas suggested.

"Shotgun," Riku said, holding up a hand.

"We're not even near the car yet!" Donald exclaimed. "You can't call shotgun yet!"

"I'll ride with Clint and Nat," Kairi said.

"Same here," Cloud said.

"Good luck, guys," Sora told his friends.

"Hey, we made it this far," Vanitas commented with a chuckle.

"We'll see you soon," Mickey said.

"Hopefully we'll all meet up safely back in the helicarrier," Goofy said.

"We will," Sora said. "Now let's get going."

Steve and Sora ran out of one part of the church, while Clint, Cloud, Natasha, and Kairi ran out another, followed by Vanitas, Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Wanda panted, a little tired from their efforts so far today, and slipped out a Potion Riku had given her as Pietro sped into the church.

"Get the people on the boats," she told her brother as she gulped down the Potion.

"I'm not going to leave you here," Pietro said.

"I can handle this," Wanda said as she felt herself gain back stamina.

A robot then charged in from one side, and she destroyed it with her powers almost immediately. Pietro shrugged his head in defeat as he realized his sister had no problem whatsover staying here alone.

"Come back for me when everyone else is off," Wanda told him. "Not before."

Pietro sighed in annoyance as he started walking across the center.

"You understand?" Wanda asked.

Pietro turned around and smiled at his sister. "You know, I'm twelve minutes older than you."

Wanda chuckled and said, "Go."

"You guys impress me," Vanitas's voice commented.

The siblings looked up to see the ravenette back in the one entrance, picking up the infinite ammo sniper rifle off the ground.

"How?" Wanda asked, confused.

"You're the first set of siblings I've met in this universe so far that haven't tried to kill each other," Vanitas answered. *** _5_ ***

The twins frowned at each other as they took in his words before looking at the ravenette again.

"You have not met a lot of nice people," Pietro commented.

"Understatement," Vanitas remarked, running back out of the church.

Pietro shrugged his shoulders and used his speed to follow Vanitas out of the church, ready to finish the job...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I don't really understand the continuity, they show that there were four "Life Boats" coming out of the helicarrier, but then here they said there were up to six. So... how many were actually released?
> 
> *2 Remember, Vanitas has decapitated Chitarti with this thing, so its a bit sharper than an average blade
> 
> *3 If you couldn't tell, Vanitas is joining those two in their usual bouts of banter during the middle of battle. Of course, he won't be able to join in IW since he's not gonna be in that movie, but he'll definitely be there for Endgame
> 
> *4 The reference is the Shadow the Hedgehog theme song, "I Am All Of Me." Sonic games just have some of the best music, imo, even if the games can be kind of eh
> 
> *5 I found a post on Instagram saying that once. It's surprisingly accurate when you think about it
> 
> Yep, they beat Sephiroth by shooting him so many times he exploded. Like Vanitas said, it was a little anticlimactic since it ended up being guns that were the ultimate weapon of his defeat, but that's why it was guns in the first place. With the spell from Vanitas, they tore through the darkness protection spell, and completely destroyed him. I always knew I wanted him to explode in a large pillar of darkness when he died because, well, it seemed normal after everything with the Organization. Just my own little way of finishing off the prick. This is admittedly the first story I've done that changes canon so much since we still don't know what the plan is for Cloud and Sephiroth in the future of Kingdom Hearts, so I don't know how I'm gonna do things if they bring the two back. But I'm sure I'll find a way to explain things if they ever come back in canon


	14. Unbearably Naive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The city of Sokovia drops...

With the pandemonium still going on all throughout the city, Tony flew under the gigantic rock to try to find one of the large mechanics.

" _Boss, power levels are way below..._ " Friday started to tell him.

"Reroute everything," Tony said. "We get one shot at this."

During this, Ultron had stumbled towards the Quinjet that the team had used to get to the city, slowly getting towards the open back door.

Not too far away, Clint was driving a car with Natasha, Cloud and Kairi, followed by one being driven by Vanitas with Riku, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey as they made their way through the city towards the Life Boats.

"I know what I need to do," Clint told his passengers.

"What?" Cloud asked.

"The dining room," Clint said. "I knock out that east wall, it'd make a nice workplace for Laura, huh? Put up some baffling. She can't hear the kids running around. What do you guys think?"

"You guys always eat in the kitchen, anyway," Natasha pointed out.

"No one eats in a dining room," Clint commented.

"But didn't you say you were done tearing apart your guys' house?" Kairi asked.

"I don't remember..." Clint started.

"Dude, I was next to you and your wife as you promised her you were done tearing apart your house," Cloud said with a smirk.

"Oh, come on," Clint said, shooting the two in the back a begging look through the rear view mirror. "Who really needs a dining room?"

Things were going a bit more roughly in Vanitas's car. Riku was okay, but Goofy was complaining that he was hungry, Donald was being super picky about the music, and Mickey was trying to be a backseat driver.

"I think we were supposed to make a left turn back there," Mickey said.

"I am following Clint, and I'm pretty sure he knows the way," Vanitas said, annoyance in his voice.

"Change the music!" Donald exclaimed.

"You're the one who said you wanted classic strings!" Vanitas snapped.

"Well, I changed my mind!" Donald snapped back. "Put on show tunes!"

"I'm hungry!" Goofy complained. "Do we have any sandwiches?"

"Change the music again!" Donald snapped.

"Make a U turn, it's gotta be that way!" Mickey exclaimed.

"Enough!" Vanitas snapped, smacking the dashboard, getting the three to stop bickering. "All right? I just helped Cloud kill the man who tortured his best friend for years and tried to kill all of us ten times over, I am not in the mood for this crap. Act like the nearing 90 mouse, early eighties duck, and early eighties dog the three of you are, or will turn this car around and none of us are leaving the city!" *** _1_ ***

"Okay..." Mickey, Donald, and Goofy softly said, akin to embarrassed children.

Vanitas looked at Riku to see the silver haired teen smirking at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," Riku said, chuckling as he looked out the window next to him. "Just realizing how much I enjoy this world."

The two cars came up to the life boats, parking next to the crowds of people running into the nearest open one. Of course, their attentions were soon drawn to the sound of Hulk roaring.

"We don't have a lot of time," Clint told his passengers.

"So get your asses on a boat," Natasha said as she started opening her door.

Behind them, the doors opened in Vanitas's car, and the group inside started climbing out.

"Get in the Life Boat," Vanitas told his friends. "I'll do one last sweep."

"I'm sticking with you," Riku said.

"Whatever floats your boat," Vanitas commented.

He and Riku started running down a nearby road while Donald, Goofy, and Mickey went with Cloud and Clint into the Life Boat.

Natasha, meanwhile, went through a store and into an abandoned park, littered with the remains of broken robots. She and Hulk looked at each other as she got closer and closer to the green giant. Hulk looked down as he tossed aside a cyborg, while Natasha smirked and slipped off her left handed glove.

"Hey, big guy," she said. "Sun's getting real low."

Back with the boats, Clint and Cloud ran into one, passing Sora and Steve as they directed people inside. Kairi and Sora immediately embraced, just happy to be back in each others' presences.

"You're okay now," Steve assured people. "You're gonna be okay. Buckle up. Secure your gear, find a seat."

Clint and Cloud sighed out as they stood in one of the entrances of the Life Boat as the others found seats.

"Costel!" a female voice called out. They looked back to see Zrinka, the girl Pietro had given the dress to the night he and Wanda met Ultron, dirty and bloody and on the ground between seats. "We were in the market. Costel!"

Curious, Clint and Cloud looked around the tattered marketplace in front of them, soon seeing a young boy that they assumed was Costel trapped in what appeared to be a staircase down.

"Of course," Cloud commented. "There's always one more."

Clint sighed out and the two men started running down the street towards the boy, with Sora making sure to tell the pilots not to leave until they got back.

While this was going on, Tony reached the bottom of the city and used a laser to burn his way into a panel at the center of the rock and looked inside, seeing all the mechanics that led up throughout the gigantic rock.

"Thor, I'm gonna need you back in the church," Tony said.

Thor had met up with Steve, Vanitas, and Riku in another part of the city, leading people towards the Life Boats.

"Is this the last of them?" Thor asked.

"Yeah," Steve confirmed. "Everyone else is on the carrier."

"Good, we can leave now!" Sora exclaimed from the Boat behind them.

" _You know, this works, we maybe don't walk away_ ," Tony told the god.

"Maybe not," Thor agreed.

"Fuck, I hate that stuff like that keeps happening to us," Vanitas commented.

Back in the park, Natasha was holding up her bare hand, and after a bunch of growling, Hulk eventually turned towards her. With a soft expression no one would expect from the green man, Hulk started to raise his hand towards Natasha's...

But then gunfire erupted on the ground around them, making Natasha fall to the ground. Hulk looked up as the gunfire kept erupting around him, seeing the Quinjet they flew into the city firing it's rail guns at him. Hulk roared out after the Quinjet as it kept flying.

Ultron sat in the pilots seat, singing, " _I got no strings, so I have fun. I'm not tied up to anyone_ ," while still preparing the rail guns to fire.

Clint and Cloud reached the indent in the ground that Costel was trapped down, seeing the boy struggling to pull himself out with a railing. The two kneeled down and offered their hands.

"Come on," Clint said, helping the boy out of the indent. "Time to go."

"We got you," Cloud assured the kid.

Unfortunately, Ultron had started firing the rail gun again, causing Steve, Riku, Vanitas, and Thor to scatter to dodge the bullets. Clint and Cloud turned towards the sight of the bullets firing getting closer to them. Clint held the boy up to his chest in a protective manner.

"Guys!" Vanitas exclaimed, running towards Clint and Cloud.

"Didn't think _this'd_ be how it ended," Cloud commented.

Nearby, Pietro watched what was happening with shock on his face. As the gunfire got closer to Clint and Cloud, the former turned around to try to protect the kid in his arms while Vanitas tackled Cloud to the ground, both of them wincing as they all prepared for the inevitable...

But then they felt something move near them quickly, too quickly.

After a second, the trio realized that nothing had happened to them, so they looked up to see a car in front of them, protecting them from the bullets. But their attentions were drawn more to Pietro in front of them, bullet wounds all throughout his torso, blood pooling out of them as he breathed in and out. Clint, Cloud, and Vanitas went wide eyed at the smirking Sokovian.

"You didn't see that coming?" Pietro managed to croak out.

Then he fell down to the ground, the life slipping out of him within seconds.

"Oh, shit," Vanitas and Cloud simultaneously breathed out, voicing Clint's thoughts.

Vanitas could sense that Wanda felt as her brother had died, which had to have been absolutely awful for her. And he knew this was true because he saw her yelling out in anguish in the church, fall to her knees and release energy that blasted out and turned all the robots in the church into dust.

In response to the attack, Thor started flying up with Mjölnir while Steve slipped his shield onto his back as he and Riku charged towards their friends. Steve and Riku reached them as Clint checked Pietro's pulse, but unfortunately couldn't feel one. Costel looked at the sight in distraught, sad that his friend was gone.

Vanitas, out of respect, closed Pietro's eyes with his hand while Steve picked up their lost comrade. Clint picked up Costel, and they started towards the Life Boat.

Meanwhile, Hulk had picked up Natasha and had leaped onto the helicarrier, gently setting her down on the landing strip as she woke up. He then leaped off the ship, landing back in the city then lunging up into the still open back door of the Quinjet that Ultron was flying.

"Oh, for god's sake," Ultron complained.

Then Hulk roared out as he threw Ultron out of the Quinjet, making the damaged android fall down the city and crash into a train car.

The rest of the team had reached the Life Boat, and Steve set Pietro gently down on the ground. Clint and Cloud reached Zrinka and passed her her brother, causing the two siblings to cry in relieve as they held on to each other. Clint and Cloud stumbled throughout the Boat, with the former collapsing onto a set of seats next to Pietro's body in exhaustion.

"No, I'm fine," Clint assured a SHIELD agent that offered to help. He laid down on the three seats in exhaustion. "It's been a long day."

Vanitas, Cloud, and Riku stumbled into seats of their own in exhaustion, tired from the latest incident. But Vanitas perked up when he sensed that Wanda was now in the train car with Ultron, twirling her hands with red energy, slowly making her way towards the downed robot. She kneeled down in front of the robot with murder in her eyes.

"Wanda," Ultron said. "If you stay here, you'll die."

"I just did," Wanda told him. Her eyes flared red. "Do you know how it felt?"

She pointed her hand at his "chest," and Ultron exclaimed as energy surged into him. His chest plate opened up, and what looked very much like a cybernetic heart flew into Wanda's hand. She looked from it to Ultron's face.

"It felt like that," Wanda told him.

Unfortunately, one of the robots Wanda had destroyed in the church was still operational as a half body. It crawled up to the device, and Vanitas snapped out of his vision.

"Oh, shit," Vanitas exclaimed.

He stood up and made his way over to the still downed floor plating as the last of the citizens and a dog climbed into the Life Boat. Steve stood in front of the ship, looking out at the empty city.

"Steve, get on!" Vanitas exclaimed.

The robot turned the device, and the city started falling. Steve quickly leaped up onto the downed floor plating and joined them as they watched the city plummet. Wanda was still inside the train car, preparing herself, while Tony got hit in the face by the plating in front of him.

"Oh, I am so gonna regret this," Vanitas said to himself.

"Why?" Steve asked as the other members of the team walked over.

Rockets appeared in the city and started making it fall faster.

"City this large, it's falling _very_ quickly, and I still don't have complete control of my powers..." Vanitas said aloud.

That helped the others figure out what he was saying.

"V, no!" Sora exclaimed.

"Yes!" Vanitas snapped back.

He held out his hands and sent out his powers, yelling out in pain as the city started to slow down due to Vanitas's interference. The rockets in the city fighting against his pull was making things _very_ much harder. *** _2_ ***

Vanitas yelled out again, but things were getting worse for him. Wounds started opening up at random along his body as blood spewed out of his nose and ears. Donald quickly cast Curaga, but the wounds opened back up immediately. The robes he was wearing were also tearing up, making them even more inhabitable than they already were.

"Guys, hurry up and blow up the damn city!" Riku exclaimed into the earpiece.

" _Why?_ " Tony asked. " _The falling has stopped_."

"My brain is on fire!!!" Vanitas bellowed in pain.

" _That's a good reason to hurry,_ " Tony quipped.

Tony, with some difficulty after getting thrown around from the city's initial plummet, flew back to the burned open hatch and aimed his chest propellor inside, sending out a large blast, doing significant damage to the core in front of him.

"Thor, on my mark," Tony said.

He was already in the church. He raised his hammer in preparation, sending out electricity all around in preparation as the robot pieces around him floated up in the air.

At the same time, Wanda was thrown up into the air of the train car, now realizing this probably wasn't a good idea. Luckily for her, Vision flew through the city as it kept plummeting against Vanitas's powers, soon reaching Wanda and grabbing her in his arms. He then quickly flew out of the train, wanting out of the city as fast as possible.

"Now!" Tony exclaimed.

Thor yelled out as he slammed Mjölnir down onto the device, sending out lightning throughout the entire machine. Thor's lightning and Tony's blast combined, causing an explosion that grew by the second, soon completely destroying the city and the rock it was on. This sent debris of rocks, pieces of the machine, and Tony flying towards the ocean below. But Tony managed to recover and started flying over the water while Thor landed in the water, unconscious but alive.

Vanitas sighed out in relief as he fell down to the floor, still alive but exhausted.

"Remind me to never do that again," Vanitas croaked out as blood stopped pouring out of his ears and nose.

"Dude, knowing you, chances are you'll do it again in a heartbeat," Riku commented.

"Yeah, most likely," Vanitas agreed with a chuckle.

"Man, you do crazier things than me," Cloud chuckled.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hulk was still in the Quinjet and had just (finally) closed the hatch in the back. His attention was drawn to the computer in the front as Natasha came up on a screen.

" _Hey, big guy_ ," she called out. " _We did it. The job is finished. Now, I need you to turn this bird around, okay?_ "

Hulk made his way over to the computer as Natasha kept talking while in the main room in the helicarrier.

"We can't track you in stealth mode," she continued as Hulk raised a hand to the computer. " _So help me out. I need you to..._ "

But then Hulk turned off the screen, ending the transmission and unknowingly surprising and upsetting Natasha. Hulk sat down in front of the controls and prepared for his long trip to wherever he could to get away from them all...

* * *

Outside of the crater where most of Sokovia used to be, one final partly damaged Ultron bot climbed up onto its feet, looking up in time to see Vision float down in front of him. The two androids faced each other, with Vision offering Ultron a sympathetic expression.

"You're afraid," Vision finally said after a few seconds of silence.

"Of you?" Ultron asked.

"Of death," Vision corrected him. "You're the last one."

"You were supposed to be the last," Ultron said, walking forwards a couple of steps. "Stark asked for a savior, and settled for a slave."

"I suppose we are both disappointments," Vision commented.

Ultron chuckled.

"I suppose we are," he agreed.

"Humans are odd," Vision admitted. "They think order and chaos are somehow opposites and... try to control what won't be. But there is grace in their failings... I think you missed that."

"They're doomed," Ultron told him before looking to the side.

"Yes," Vision agreed. After a second, he added, "But a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts."

Ultron looked at him again.

"It's a privilege to be among them," Vision said.

"You're unbearably naive," Ultron commented.

"Well..." Vision said. He looked up at at Ultron. "I was born yesterday." *** _3_ ***

Ultron lunged at Vision, but Vision was quicker and blasted the other android with a beam from the Mind Stone. Just like that, the menace of Ultron was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I wanted to have one more humorous moment between these guys before the story ended. Plus, since this is 2015, he incorporated their ages for what they are on this world. Mickey was 87, Donald was 81, and Goofy was 83
> 
> *2 Of course V would do something so massive and stupid like lift the city to keep it from falling. And it cost him his robes, so now they're gone. (Sad noises)
> 
> *3 I still remember how much I laughed when he said that line the first time I saw this when I was 13. I will never not love it


	15. Avengers...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gummi group leaves Earth 616 while the Avengers team up in their new base...

It was a quiet day on Barton farm. Cooper and Lila were reading books on a couch in the living room, while Laura grabbed a kettle off the stove and put it in the sink. However, her attention was quickly drawn to the the front of the living room, where Clint stood wearing normal clothes with one bag over his shoulder and one on the floor, with Cloud standing behind him at the still open door, also wearing normal clothes. Relieved tears grew in Laura's eyes as she smiled and ran at Clint. The two embraced in a hug, just relieved to have each other back.

"We'll miss you on the field, Clint," Cloud said once the couple parted.

"Thanks, Cloud," Clint said, nodding at the blonde. "Good luck out there. You're a good man, and I have high hopes for what you'll do."

"Eh," Cloud said, waving his hand to stave off embarrassment. "I do what I can. Luckily, you managed to be a pretty good influence of what I should strive for."

The old teammates smiled at each other, then Clint started moving towards Cloud.

"No," Cloud said, pointing at Clint as he got closer. "No, no, no. I don't like..."

But then Clint wrapped his arms around Cloud, grabbing him in a hug.

"...physical contact," Cloud sighed out in defeat.

Then Clint's family made things worse for Cloud by running up and joining him in hugging Cloud. Even Cooper and Lila joined in, laughing along the way.

Cloud chuckled in embarrassment. "Oh... fu... _screw_ my life." Smile never leaving his face, he sighed out in defeat and accepted the hugs.

* * *

Some time later, Vanitas, dressed in a shirt and jeans while carrying his sling, joined Tony, dressed in a suit, in a car driving through various woods until they came out and drove down the road to the new Avengers Facility out in Upstate New York, a large compound with an attached air field for Quinjets and other flying vehicles to land at. The Gummi ship was right outside the compound, though, since the group was gonna be leaving today to go back to their respective home.

There were still lots of people working inside the compound, setting things up for the place to be a good home for the Avengers. People working were being led by some of their closest allies, including Maria Hill, Dr Helen Cho, and Dr Erik Selvig.

A couple of floors above them, Cloud and Natasha were in a slightly darkened room with a giant window on the side that was planned to be the shooting range. Natasha was dressed in her Widow gear while Cloud had on his usual black robes, with an added Avengers patch on the right side of his chest. Natasha took out her smartphone and she and Cloud watched the video that Laura had sent them of newborn Nathaniel Pietro Barton.

"Aww..." Cloud commented.

"Fat," Natasha said with a smile.

Cloud frowned at her.

"Uh, yeah, babies tend to be like that," he said with a chuckle.

"One of our tech boys flagged this," Fury announced, walking towards them carrying a tablet. "Splashed down in the Banda Sea."

He reached Natasha and Cloud and showed the former the coordinates and mark point on the tablet.

"Could be the Quinjet," Fury suggested. "But with Stark's stealth tech, we still can't track the damn thing."

"Right," Natasha slowly said.

"Probably jumped out and swam to Fiji," Fury suggested.

"Probably sitting on a beach sipping mojitos in a banana hammock right now," Cloud suggested with a chuckle. Then he grimaced. "Why'd I give myself that mental image?"

"Why'd you give _me_ that mental image?" Fury frowned at Cloud before looking at Natasha again. "He'll send a postcard."

He started walking away.

"'Wish you were here'," Natasha added to the joke before looking up at Fury. "You sent me to recruit him way back when. Did you know then what was gonna happen?"

Fury walked back over to her.

"You never know," he commented. "You hope for the best, then make do with what you get. I got a great team."

"I have friends," Cloud added.

"Nothing lasts forever," Natasha told Fury with a knowing smile.

"Trouble, Miss Romanoff," Fury said, pointing the tablet at Natasha. He started walking away again, spinning the tablet in his hands. "No matter who wins or loses, trouble still comes around."

Natasha sighed out and crossed her arms as she looked forwards at the wall.

"Did I just interrupt a private moment between adopted father and adopted daughter?" Cloud asked with a frown.

"Why does everyone assume that?" Natasha asked. *** _1_ ***

Deciding to take a less dangerous route, Cloud went to meet up with Tony, Steve, Thor, Vanitas, Riku, and Sora as they walked down a hallway out of the compound. The rest of the Gummi group had already said their emotional goodbyes to the rest of the team and were waiting for them at the Gummi ship outside.

"The rules have changed," Steve said.

"We're dealing with something new," Tony added.

"Well, not exactly new," Vanitas pointed out. "This is the second Stone you guys have encountered."

"Fourth V or I have encountered," Sora added.

"Not exactly talking about the Stone," Tony pointed out. "I mean with new members of the team, and one of them being worthy."

"Oh, the Vision is artificial intelligence," Steve said.

"A machine," Tony added.

"So, it doesn't count?" Steve asked.

"No, it's not like a person lifting a hammer," Tony pointed out.

"Right," Steve agreed, gesturing to Tony. "Different rules for us."

"Nice guy," Tony added. "Artificial."

"Thank you," Steve said.

"Hey, you never know about him," Vanitas said. "We still don't know everything about him, so he might just surprise us."

"Yeah, like how?" Tony asked.

"Well, he's anatomically correct," Vanitas said.

That made the group stop in their tracks.

"Wait, really?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Vanitas said.

"What does that mean?" Sora asked.

"He's got a dick," Cloud translated for his brunette friend.

"Vulgar description, but accurate," Riku said.

"How would you know that he's anatomically correct?" Tony asked Vanitas.

"'Cause he and Wanda are gonna have sex in about two years," Vanitas said.

That surprised his friends more than they already were.

"And... how would you know that?" Riku asked, frowning.

"Remember how with my life force back, I'm slowly getting stuff back?" Vanitas asked. The six nodded their heads. "Well, I remember when I was a kid, my brother taught me this trick. With just one look at a person, I can tell when both the last time they had sex was, and when the next time they'll have sex will be." *** _2_ ***

"Uh, really?" Steve asked.

"My brother's an idiot," Vanitas admitted.

"So... how accurate is this trick?" Tony asked.

Vanitas pointed at Tony.

"Two days, four hours, and twenty-seven minutes ago," he said.

Tony's eyes widened in surprise and nodded his head, impressed. Vanitas then pointed at Thor, and cocked his head with a smirk.

"Fourteen hours and six minutes ago," he said. " Then again about four minutes later. Man, you and Jane cannot hold back."

Thor chuckled, also impressed. Vanitas then pointed at Steve.

"He's an almost ninety seven year old virgin," he said. Steve sighed out in annoyance before Vanitas laughed. "No, I'm joking. But the last time was before he got frozen."

Tony and Cloud winced as they looked at Steve.

"All right, shut up," Steve said.

"Not bad," Riku said with a head nod. "But, really? Wanda and Vision?"

"Yeah, they'll work well together," Vanitas said, remembering the glimpses he had seen before. "It's not just casual sex. They actually fall in love."

"Huh," Riku said, looking back down the hallway they just walked down.

"Good for them," he said with a nod of the head.

"Lucky Vision," Vanitas commented. "Gets a smoking hot girlfriend and is worthy for Mjölnir."

"He can wield the hammer, he can keep the Mind Stone," Thor said, looking at each of his friends. "It's safe with the Vision. And these days, safe is in short supply."

There was a moment of silence as they contemplated Thor's words.

"But if you put the hammer in an elevator..." Steve started.

"It would still go up," Tony said, gesturing to Steve as Thor smiled.

"It fulfills its purpose and carries up the hammer," Cloud said.

"Elevator's not worthy," Steve said with a sing-song voice as he looked down and shook his head.

"I'm gonna miss these little talks of ours," Thor admitted, placing a hand on Tony's shoulder.

"Not if you don't leave," Tony countered.

"Yeah, there are moments where I never wanna leave," Vanitas commented.

"I have no choice," Thor said as he led the way back down the hallway. "The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. Friend V himself had a personal encounter with all four. This is not a coincidence."

They walked out of the door at the end of the hallway, coming out into the field outside the compound.

"Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us," Thor said as they walked across the grass while Tony took out a pair of sunglasses. "And once all these pieces are in position..."

"Triple Yahtzee," Tony said, sunglasses on.

"New York combined with Ultron on steroids," Vanitas added.

"Just a very bad day," Cloud assessed.

"You think you can find out what's coming, big guy?" Sora asked.

"I do," Thor confirmed. He gestured to Tony and Vanitas before walking down the field. "Besides these two, there's nothing that can't be explained."

Thor stopped just a few feet away and smiled at him, not noticing that Vanitas was getting him with the circle game. Thor gave them one last nod before looking up and holding up Mjölnir. Almost immediately, the Bifrost surged down and picked him up, taking him back to Asgard and leaving the burn marks in the grass.

"That man has no regard for lawn maintenance," Tony commented.

"The nerve of some people," Vanitas said in mock anger.

They turned from the marks on the ground and started walking towards the road not too far away.

"I'm gonna miss him, though," Tony admitted. "And you guys are gonna miss me. There's gonna be a lot of manly tears."

Tony took out a small remote and pressed a button, causing a high pitched beep. His car started driving itself down the road and stopped next to him.

"Sure you won't stay, V?" Steve asked.

"I'll come back," Vanitas promised. "Later. I've been through so much in the last year, I need a real fucking vacation."

"Amen to that," Riku agreed.

"What're you gonna do?" Tony asked.

Vanitas smirked and put an arm around Sora and Riku's shoulders.

"Oh, these guys' home works pretty well for a makeshift vacation resort," he said.

"Well, things are about to get _very_ interesting on the islands," Riku commented with a smirk.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Sora admitted.

"Hey, I can teach you guys how to drive!" Vanitas suggested.

"Uh, oh," Sora said with a chuckle before looking at Cloud. "Sure you don't want a ride back to Radiant Garden, Cloud?"

"Nah, I'm sticking around," Cloud said. "I'm not ready to face the others yet, especially Tifa, or Aerith with the news about Zack. Besides, I still have a lot of guilt over what I did to bring about Sephiroth. I figure being a hero for a bit will help with that. What better place to do so, eh?"

"Very true," Tony said, looking from Cloud to Vanitas. "I still got your Vortex Manipulator in the old lab at the tower. I can probably rework a couple of wires and put in a small arc reactor, make it viable for world travel again. That way once Big Ass Sword here can get back to his majestic jezebel."

"I care about her greatly, but she is definitely not majestic," Cloud admitted with a chuckle.

"He's not wrong," Vanitas commented, at which Riku elbowed him in the side for being rude. "Oh, one more thing."

Vanitas turned towards Cloud and reached into his sling. He pulled out the burned Masamune sword and held it up to a slightly surprised Cloud.

"Hang it up on your wall, and when you look at it, you remember that you did it," Vanitas instructed. "You beat him, and he's not a problem anymore. Take the sword as a way to remember your victory."

Cloud looked at the sword and nodded his head with a small smirk. He took the sword and held it with one hand, giving Sora, Riku, Vanitas, and Tony handshakes or fist bumps goodbye. He then ran back down the field and through the doors, re-entering the compound.

"I'm gonna miss that nut job," Vanitas admitted.

"Same," Riku said. "He became a good guy."

"And I will miss you, Tony," Steve told their goatee'd friend.

"Well, maybe it's time for me to tap out," Tony admitted as he leaned against his car. "Maybe I should take a page out of Barton's book. Build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up."

"Just don't threaten terrorists on national television and give them your address again," Vanitas told him.

"Uh, yeah, good idea," Tony said.

"A simple life," Steve said, smiling at Tony.

"You'll get there one day," Tony assured Steve.

"I don't know," Steve admitted. "Family, stability... The guy who wanted that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out."

"Hey, just cause you think you're different from how you were doesn't mean things are really that different," Vanitas assured their friend. "And besides, you never know when it comes to the family and stability things. Sometimes, you can be surprised."

"Oh, yeah?" Steve asked. "You see anything about Wanda and Vision in a situation like that?"

"Too much knowledge is a burden," Vanitas told Steve with a smirk.

He didn't exactly feel like admitting that he had seen one or two short moments of the aforementioned two in a house together, at one point with Wanda having a distended stomach, and at another point the both of them were holding babies in blankets.

Tony stepped towards his car and opened the door. But he stopped and gave Steve a concerned expression.

"You all right?" Tony asked.

Steve looked towards the sound of soldiers shouting in the distance and nodded his head.

"I'm home," he said.

Tony smirked at his old friend and gave Vanitas, Sora, and Riku good bye hugs before climbing in his car and driving away. Steve followed Tony's example and started giving the three good bye hugs. Each one had a little remark when they separated.

Sora: "We'll be back soon. Hopefully next time, there won't be a world ending threat."

Riku: "Good luck with the team. If anyone can lead them, it's you."

Vanitas: "Take care of Cloud. I want that psycho in better shape than he's in now next time I see him."

Vanitas's caused them to laugh one more time before the three went to the Gummi ship. But Vanitas stopped himself and Riku in their tracks and watched as Sora and Kairi embraced with a hug again. Vanitas gestured to his doppelgänger and his almost girlfriend.

"Two years, three months, twelve days, and four hours," Vanitas muttered to Riku.

Riku went wide eyed and stared at the two.

"Really?" he asked with a chuckle.

"They try to wait until they turn eighteen, but they just can't help themselves," Vanitas said with a smirk, seeing the night the two of them decide they're ready.

"Aw," Riku said, cocking his head to the side as he stared at his friends.

"Also, Cloud gets them drunk," Vanitas added.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Riku asked with a chuckle.

They walked up to the others and climbed in with everyone else. They all waved good bye to Steve through the cockpit windshield before flying the ship up into the air and through the sky, leaving Earth once more.

It was after about an hour of flying that Sora realized it.

"Oh, man!" Sora exclaimed.

"What?" Mickey asked.

"Thor's traveling across the galaxy to find out who's looking for the Infinity Stones!" Sora said.

"So?" Donald asked.

"We know who's looking for the Infinity Stones," Sora reminded them.

A collective groan erupted among the seven in the ship.

"We forgot to tell them about Thanos!" Vanitas exclaimed. "We never even mentioned that he was the one who tortured Loki and sent him to New York in the first place."

"Should we go after him and tell him?" Kairi asked.

"He'll be in Asgard by now," Vanitas said. "But I've only travelled there by Bifrost or Vortex Manipulator."

"...You know what, he can figure it out himself," Donald assured the group. "I mean, he's a god, right?"

"You're right," Goofy said. "He's got over a thousand years more experience than us."

"Hey, yeah," Riku said, gesturing to them. "I mean, we figured out about Thanos, and we weren't even trying."

"Yeah," Sora agreed, relieved smile.

"Okay," Kairi said, nodding her head in agreement.

"And it only took us like, three weeks after we learned who the prick was to figure out what he's up to," Vanitas added with a smile. "It shouldn't take too long for Thor to figure out the truth about Thanos. He'll be fine." *** _3_ ***

* * *

Not too much later, Steve and Cloud found Natasha still in the shooting room, still staring at the wall with her arms crossed.

"You wanna keep staring at the wall, or do you wanna go to work?" Steve asked. Natasha jumped in surprise and turned towards them. "I mean, it's a pretty interesting wall."

"I thought you and Tony were still gazing into each other's eyes," Natasha quipped as she walked towards them, taking an offered tablet from Steve. "How do we look?"

"Well, we're not the '27 Yankees," Steve commented, studying the tablet with her as they walked down a hallway towards the training room.

"Or a more modern sports team," Cloud commented.

"We got some hitters," Natasha pointed out.

"They're good," Steve admitted. "They're not a team."

"Let's beat them into shape," Natasha said.

"I'm looking forward to this," Cloud admitted.

"Before we do," Natasha said, stopping and getting the other two to stop. "We're gonna need to figure out a code name for you in the field. Steve's got Captain America, I've got Black Widow, Tony had Iron Man, Clint had Hawkeye, and Rhodey had War Machine. We were never with Sora or V for enough time to figure one out for them. But what about you?"

"I don't know," Cloud said, looking up in contemplation. "I've never given something like this much thought before."

"Well, your blade is called a Buster Sword, right?" Steve asked. Cloud nodded his head while Steve smirked. "Well, maybe we can..."

"Ah," Cloud said, pointing one finger up. "Let me get one thing straight. If anyone calls me 'Buster,' teammate or not, they're gonna lose a limb."

Natasha chuckled as Cloud continued the walk down the hallway.

Steve pushed open a set of double doors and the three walked out onto a small place overlooking the hanger/makeshift training room. Rhodey turned towards them and had the mechanism covering his face slide up. Vision floated down and looked up at the three. Sam Wilson, decked out in his Falcon gear minus the goggles, floated down and retracted his wings, looking up at them. Wanda floated down with red energy looked up at them while dressed in her new outfit.

' _I'm with Tifa, I'm with Tifa, I'm with Tifa_ ,' Cloud kept repeating in his head, fighting the urge to look at how Wanda's corset emphasized her breasts a bit.

The four new members of the team looked up at the three at the top of the stairs. Natasha had her arms crossed behind her back as she stared at them. Cloud was leaning against a railing, doing his best to look cool, and succeeding. Steve stared at his new teammates.

"Avengers..."

* * *

_Somewhere on the other side of the universe, multiple panels slid open, slowly but surely having more light pour into a small room, revealing a large, golden, left handed gauntlet with an empty slot on each knuckle and one in the center of the back of a hand. A tall, purple skinned man with scarred skin wearing golden armor walked in and slipped the gauntlet onto his left hand._

_"Fine," Thanos sighed out as he lifted his gauntleted hand and smirked as he closed it into a fist. "I'll do it myself."_

Vanitas gasped awake and sat up in his bed, breathing in and out in surprise at the dream/vision he had just had. There was no doubt in his mind that the empty slots were for the Infinity Stones. Six slots, six stones, it all added up. What Thanos wanted with an... Infinity Gauntlet, he didn't want to know. All he needed to know was that the Avengers could take care of Thanos if he ever traveled to Earth to try to get the Mind Stone. And the rest of them would be sure to go there to help kick the shit out of old Nut Sack Chin for everything he's done.

But there was something about the vision he just had that confused him greatly. The gauntlet that Thanos had slipped on was very familiar to him. Familiar because it was just like his gauntlets.

Vanitas raised up his hands with his palms to the bed and summoned his gauntlets. He looked down at the Keyblade Armor and studied the six slots, one at each knuckle and one in the center of each hand. His entire time wearing these things, there was always the pertinent question on his mind of why the empty slots were there. But now an answer was starting to come to him.

But that just raised an entirely new question.

"Why do I have Infinity Gauntlets?" *** _4_ ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *1 I wanted to use that joke again
> 
> *2 I got that idea when I was thirteen and saw an episode of How I Met Your Mother where Barney said that he could tell just by looking at a girl when the last time she had sex was, so I added that trait to my early versions of Vanitas. I'm aware it's completely stupid
> 
> *3 Oh, they have no idea how wrong they are. Canon is staying true and he won't figure it out himself for a while. And them forgetting to mention it is kind of a normal thing. Look at the beginning of III. They forgot to mention Xigbar, Maleficent and Pete, and the black box problem to Yen Sid, Riku, and Mickey until well after they got to Twilight Town. I'm just keeping up with their character traits
> 
> *4 That is part of a crazy, intricate part of the story that will not have any impact.  
> ... In the canon Endgame Story  
> I wanted to keep it a surprise, but I have plans to do two different endings for Endgame. A canon one so I can keep continuity and do more stories involving the future movies and shows (partly 'cause I wanna add Roxas into Falcon and Winter Soldier after testing out their chemistry in the CA:TWS story), and a fix it ending that'll allow me to do some crazy stuff in the future that doesn't require future movies. Like I pretty much spoiled here, the thing with Vanitas's gauntlets will only happen in the fix it ending, which will happen after the canon ending. So, we've still got a long way to go until we see what you're probably already guessing to happen
> 
> And that's another story finished. If you're wondering why I decided to have Cloud stay on Earth, it's 'cause I wanted to be able to add more of a connection between him and the team. Especially Hawkeye. Unfortunately, no, I won't be doing a Civil War story adding him in. It'll happen pretty much the same way it does in the movie. Plus, I still barely know the guy enough to do him justice in an entire story. But I can promise flashbacks at the beginning of the Endgame story to explain how things go.
> 
> Up next, I'll be skipping Coded since there's not much I can add Vanitas into there. He'll enjoy his break with Sora, Riku, and Kairi on the Destiny Islands, during which you'll finally learn why Sora and Vanitas look alike. Then their break gets interrupted by Mickey's news about how they need to help the others, and at the news Xehanort returns, Vanitas decides to use his powers to get back his memories and hopefully his Keyblade. That part, I'm especially looking forward to, since it'll answer a couple of more questions about Vanitas. We'll get there soon...


End file.
